Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a San Francisco philanthropic organization that describes itself as "a venture of The Omidyar Group" and gives its mission as "to bend the arc of the digital revolution toward shared power, prosperity, and possibility." It states that it has "committed more than $1.9 billion to initiatives that share our vision."¹ It operates "both a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and a 501(c)(3) foundation," a "dual checkbook structure." The LLC invests in startups and "also allows us to invest in not-for-profits beyond public charities, such as 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations," while "policy advocacy, ballot initiatives, and coalition building are critical ways Omidyar Network leverages our resources."²

The foundation files with the Internal Revenue Service as Omidyar Network Fund Inc, EIN 20-1173866, at 535 Mission Street in San Francisco, in care of George E. Diener, under an IRS ruling dated February 1, 2005. It files as a private foundation (Form 990-PF). For the tax period ending December 2024 it reported assets of 382,487,320 dollars and income of 112,303,357 dollars. Earlier returns show the following (in dollars):³

Leadership

Mike Kubzansky joined Omidyar Network in 2013 and was chief executive from 2018. On March 11, 2026, the organization announced that Michele Jawando would succeed him. Jawando had joined in 2021 as senior vice president of programs and become president in 2025; she had worked for Representative Gregory Meeks and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, had been a senior executive at Google, and had led strategic initiatives at the Center for American Progress. The announcement said Kubzansky was "moving on to build and lead a new entity that will shape AI investment for the public good." The board chair is Pat Christen.⁴ Its website lists Pierre Omidyar and Pam Omidyar as co-founders, Pam Omidyar also as a board member, Marta L. Tellado as a board member and Mona Sutphen as a board observer.⁵

Generative AI Fund

On December 5, 2023, Omidyar Network announced "an initial $30M investment across a diverse slate of organizations to support the responsible development of generative AI," describing it as "part of the new funders initiative on AI launched by the White House last month." The announcement said the investment came "on the heels of the recent Open AI saga," the November 2023 crisis on the board of OpenAI, and that Omidyar aimed to ensure "that the future of this technology is not defined by market considerations of a few dominant players." Kubzansky said the investment would "help bridge the gap between private interests and the common good."⁶

The named partners were Humane Intelligence, whose co-founder Rumman Chowdhury thanked Omidyar "for our initial seed funding" for AI red-teaming exercises; the Collective Intelligence Project, to run "AI Alignment Assemblies"; the AI Now Institute; Economic Security Project Action, with the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, to "develop proposals for AI governance structures including public options for generative AI"; and the AFL-CIO Technology Institute, to "help working people tell their stories to policymakers in Congress and statehouses." Omidyar also said it would "invest in private venture capital funds" backing companies that use generative AI in healthcare diagnosis, chip design and batteries.⁶

Anthropic Shares

On April 1, 2024, Omidyar Network announced that it, with the Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, had bought "just under 50,000 shares" of Anthropic stock that had been offered for sale in the bankruptcy proceedings of FTX. Kubzansky said: "As a philanthropic leader who manages both our grants and our capital for social good, we are investing in generative AI that protects and promotes the public interest and prioritizes the long-term benefit of humanity." The statement cited Anthropic's "long-term benefit trust" (the Long-Term Benefit Trust), which "oversees some seats on its board, effectively creating a buffer against direct investor influence," and said that "following the governance failures at OpenAI, we are hopeful that having mission-aligned investors ... will help protect and reinforce the safety and other mission-driven priorities of Anthropic's work."⁷

AI Policy Grantmaking

Under its "Governance of Tech" program, Omidyar Network funds groups on online safety, including "social media warning labels" and the effect of "AI companions" on children; on tech competition and antitrust enforcement, working with smaller companies that "share a common interest in scaling American-led innovation and 'winning' the AI race"; on "public AI infrastructure"; and on AI-enabled worker surveillance and algorithmic management. The partners it lists as "people and organizations we're funding" are the AI Now Institute, the Young People's Alliance, the Center for American Progress, the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund, the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, Carnegie Mellon University's Open Forum for AI, and Americans for Responsible Innovation.⁸ Americans for Responsible Innovation is a 501(c)(4) that lobbies Congress on AI regulation and that also lists Coefficient Giving, the former Open Philanthropy, as a supporter.⁹

Before this public grantmaking, in April 2023, Jeff Alstott of the Rand Corporation emailed a proposal for licensing advanced AI to members of the Omidyar Network, asking recipients to keep the document "off the public internet."¹⁰

On December 11, 2025, Kubzansky condemned the Trump administration's executive order "preempting essential state and local AI regulations." He wrote that "as a philanthropic investor in AI companies and funds, Omidyar Network is acutely aware of the risks to innovators and investors created by inconsistent or poorly drafted rules. But the solution is not to preempt state and local laws," and urged Congress "to reject any attempts to impose a national moratorium on new AI safeguards."¹¹