--- alias: - Nick Beckstead - Nicholas Beckstead - Nicholas Michael Beckstead - Dr Nicholas Michael Beckstead born: 1985-03 category: AI & Effective Altruism created: 2026-10-01 location: San Francisco, California relations: - fn: 2 role: program officer, science philanthropy and machine learning start: 2014 type: employed_by with: '[[Open Philanthropy]]' - fn: 2 role: research fellow type: employed_by with: '[[Future of Humanity Institute]]' - end: 2019-04-02 fn: 1 role: director of the company then named Centre for Effective Altruism start: 2012-02-23 type: director_of with: '[[Effective Ventures]]' - end: 2023-08-23 fn: 1 role: director of the company named Centre for Effective Altruism until August 2022, then Effective Ventures Foundation start: 2021-07-01 type: director_of with: '[[Effective Ventures]]' - fn: 9 role: chief executive, reporting directly to Bankman-Fried type: head_of with: '[[FTX Foundation]]' - fn: 9 role: director of the Delaware nonprofit type: director_of with: '[[FTX Foundation]]' - fn: 2 role: chief executive type: head_of with: '[[FTX Future Fund]]' - fn: 9 role: chief executive of the FTX Foundation type: reported_to with: '[[Sam Bankman-Fried]]' - end: 2024-03-14 fn: 14 role: defendant in the debtors' Latona adversary proceeding, No. 23-50444; settled and dismissed start: 2023-07-19 type: subject_of with: '[[Alameda Research]]' - fn: 2 role: policy lead type: employed_by with: '[[Center for AI Safety]]' - fn: 2 role: co-founder and chief executive type: founded with: '[[Secure AI Project]]' summary: American philosopher, Open Philanthropy program officer and Effective Ventures director who ran the FTX Foundation and Future Fund, was sued and then dismissed by the FTX debtors, and co-founded Secure AI Project. tags: - Person - NickBeckstead - FTXFutureFund - FTXFoundation - EffectiveVentures - OpenPhilanthropy - EffectiveAltruism - Longtermism - SecureAIProject - Latona - WythamAbbey updated: 2026-10-01 --- Nicholas Michael Beckstead (born March 1985), an American philosopher, was a program officer at [Open Philanthropy](/organizations/open-philanthropy/) from 2014, a director of the English charitable company now named Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) in two periods between 2012 and 2023, and the chief executive of the FTX Foundation and its [FTX Future Fund](/organizations/ftx-future-fund/) until the team's resignation in November 2022. The debtors in the [FTX](/organizations/ftx/) bankruptcy named him as a defendant in July 2023 and dismissed him in March 2024 after he agreed to cooperate. His website lists him as co-founder and chief executive of Secure AI Project.[^1][^2] ### Education and Open Philanthropy His website states that he completed a bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy at the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in philosophy at Rutgers University, that he was a research fellow at the [Future of Humanity Institute](/organizations/future-of-humanity-institute/) of the University of Oxford, and that he was an early employee of Open Philanthropy, where he served as a program officer "in a variety of areas, including science philanthropy and machine learning, starting in 2014." The same page lists conversations he recorded in 2013 and 2014 on space colonization and on surviving a global food crisis.[^2] ### Centre for Effective Altruism and Effective Ventures Companies House records for company 07962181, incorporated on February 23, 2012 as the Centre for [Effective Altruism](/concepts/effective-altruism/), renamed Effective Ventures Foundation on August 25, 2022 and Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) on February 27, 2023, list Dr Nicholas Michael Beckstead, an American national, as a director from February 23, 2012 to April 2, 2019 (with a correspondence address in [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/)) and again from July 1, 2021 to August 23, 2023. The register lists [William MacAskill](/people/william-macaskill/) as a director from February 23, 2012 to September 21, 2023, [Toby Ord](/people/toby-ord/) from February 23, 2012 to July 29, 2022, Hilary Greaves from April 2 to July 18, 2019, Claire Zabel from July 18, 2019 to March 28, 2024, Owen Cotton-Barratt from March 24, 2020 to February 11, 2023, and [Tasha McCauley](/people/tasha-mccauley/) from July 1, 2021 to March 14, 2024, and records Tara Mac Aulay as company secretary from July 1, 2015 to August 17, 2018.[^1] A 2025 filing by the FTX Recovery Trust states that [Bankman-Fried](/people/sam-bankman-fried/), as chief executive of the FTX Foundation, "hired Nick Beckstead, an Effective Altruist who sat on the Board of Directors of Effective Ventures, a federation of Effective Altruist organizations and projects (including the [Centre for Effective Altruism](/organizations/centre-for-effective-altruism/))," and that the Foundation employed MacAskill as an adviser. The same filing records that Bankman-Fried had left the Centre's board in 2019 after it investigated its connections with [Alameda Research](/organizations/alameda-research/).[^3] On November 19, 2022 the charity reported to the Charity Commission that FTX and affiliated entities, among its funders, had filed for bankruptcy, that it held 3.3 million pounds and 300,000 dollars in funding from them, and that two of its trustees were connected with FTX, one as chief executive of the FTX Foundation and the other as an unpaid adviser to the Future Fund. The Commission opened a statutory inquiry on December 19, 2022. Its report, published May 22, 2024, does not name the trustees. It records that the charity ringfenced the funds, obtained a defence against money laundering from the National Crime Agency, and returned 4,246,503.16 dollars to FTX under a settlement; that the two FTX-connected trustees had been excluded from decisions on the bankruptcy and resigned during the inquiry; that their connections had produced "a lack of clarity as to whether they were acting for the charity or on behalf of FTX Foundation at any given time"; that trustees had not been required to disclose potential conflicts on joining the board until October 2022; and that there was nonetheless no evidence of unmanaged conflicts regarding funds received from the FTX Foundation.[^4] *Civil Society* reported in April 2024, citing the charity's accounts, that Effective Ventures Foundation bought Wytham Abbey, near Oxford, in April 2022 after receiving 17 million pounds from Open Philanthropy to support the purchase.[^5] *Third Sector* reported on February 18, 2026 that the charity had paid almost 15 million pounds for the abbey, recorded an impairment loss of 8.6 million pounds as of June 30, 2025, and sold it to an unnamed buyer for 6 million pounds in November 2025.[^6] The charity's announcement of March 25, 2024 stated that the Wytham Abbey Project had not met "the funding bar of our major funders" and that the board had decided to sell the property; an update of November 11, 2025 recorded completion of the sale.[^7] Beckstead was recorded as a director of the charity from July 2021 through the purchase and until August 2023.[^1] ### The FTX Foundation A document that Bankman-Fried created on December 30, 2021 at 1:55 a.m. Eastern time, setting out proposed terms for hiring Ross Rheingans-Yoo, tells the recipient to "chat with Nick [Beckstead ('Beckstead'), the CEO of the FTX Foundation,] about foundation stuff before this is finalized," and lists the manager as "likely Caroline [Ellison] + SBF [Bankman-Fried] + Nick [Beckstead] depending on the task." A revised version Rheingans-Yoo created later that day describes a position as "Director of Special Projects, reporting to NB," and states that "FDUs," foundation direction units, "can be directed to plausibly-EA things at Ross's discretion with NB[ Beckstead]/SBF oversight for not damaging the FTXF/etc brand"; the final terms of March 24, 2022 repeat that clause. The debtors and Rheingans-Yoo stipulated in January 2025 that he began work on or about January 4, 2022 and, with the knowledge and consent of Bankman-Fried and Beckstead, held himself out as a "program officer," "project officer" and "special projects lead" of the FTX Foundation, although he was not employed by it and was paid by FTX Digital Markets Ltd.[^8] The debtors' complaint of July 19, 2023 states that the FTX Foundation was a Delaware nonprofit, non-stock corporation whose sole member was Bankman-Fried and whose directors included Bankman-Fried, Nishad Singh, Gary Wang, [Caroline Ellison](/people/caroline-ellison/) and Beckstead, and that Beckstead, as its chief executive, reported directly to Bankman-Fried.[^9] A later complaint by the FTX Recovery Trust states that FTX Foundation, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on February 1, 2022 and renamed FTX Philanthropy, Inc. on July 1, 2022, that its directors and officers included the same five, and cites the February 28, 2022 post of [Leopold Aschenbrenner](/people/leopold-aschenbrenner/) and Beckstead describing the Future Fund's regranting program, which offered "discretionary budgets to independent part-time grantmakers." According to that complaint, in March 2022 the Foundation approved a regrantor's request to send 1 million dollars to Manifold Markets through simple agreements for future equity; because the Foundation was not yet incorporated, Alameda Research Ventures LLC was made the counterparty, Bankman-Fried signed the agreements on March 20 and April 2, 2022, and the money was wired from Alameda Research Ventures' account at Signature Bank. Manifold Markets applied on March 21, 2022 for funds to create a charitable arm, and on or about August 8, 2022 FTX Philanthropy sent it 500,000 dollars, which the Trust alleges funded Manifold for Charity and seeks to recover.[^10] In a motion of July 23, 2025 the Trust stated that the Bankruptcy Court had overruled, on July 9, 2025, its objection to Rheingans-Yoo's claim to a 650,000 dollar donation to an effective altruism cause of his choosing, and that he had designated Manifold for Charity, where Singh then worked as an engineer, as the beneficiary.[^3] On cross-examination of Bankman-Fried at his trial on October 31, 2023, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon asked whether he had discussed with the Bahamian prime minister Philip Davis paying off the national debt of about 11.6 billion dollars, which he said he did not remember, and whether he had joked that his employee Ryan Salame was effectively a member of the Bahamian government, which he denied. She then read from Government Exhibit 2504, a chat titled "Project Chinchilla Chatter" dated December 2, 2021, in which Bankman-Fried wrote that "the Bahamas has already asked if we want to do anything with their CBDC." The next message was from Beckstead at 12:01 a.m.: "Leopold is going to look online to try to figure out who in the Bahamas government we should be talking to." Bankman-Fried replied, "His name is Ryan Salame."[^11] In a post on the Effective Altruism Forum timestamped 02:04 UTC on November 11, 2022, Beckstead, Aschenbrenner, Avital Balwit, Ketan Ramakrishnan and MacAskill announced that they had resigned from the Future Fund "earlier today." They wrote that they were "shocked and immensely saddened," that they had "fundamental questions about the legitimacy and integrity of the business operations that were funding the FTX Foundation and the Future Fund," and that "it looks likely that there are many committed grants that the Future Fund will be unable to honor."[^12] ### Equity in FTX The FTX debtors' lists of equity holders, filed March 13, 2023, record Nick Beckstead as the holder of 100,000 shares of Class A common stock of West Realm Shires Inc., the parent of FTX US, and 22,400 shares of common stock of FTX Trading Ltd.[^13] ### The Latona adversary proceeding On July 19, 2023 Alameda Research Ltd. and FTX Trading Ltd. filed an adversary complaint (Adv. Pro. No. 23-50444, Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware) against Platform Life Sciences Inc., Lumen Bioscience, GreenLight Biosciences Holdings, Riboscience, Genetic Networks, 4J Therapeutics, Latona Biosciences Group, the FTX Foundation, Bankman-Fried, Rheingans-Yoo and "Nicholas Beckstead." The debtors alleged that the FTX Foundation and Latona, which they called "a sham non-profit company organized in the Bahamas," channeled approximately 71.6 million dollars of commingled Alameda and FTX funds to the life sciences companies, and sought to recover no less than 71,550,000 dollars as fraudulent transfers. Against Beckstead and Rheingans-Yoo they pleaded aiding and abetting, or knowing assistance in, Bankman-Fried's breach of fiduciary duty.[^9] Latona was incorporated in [the Bahamas](/places/bahamas/) on May 20, 2022 with Rheingans-Yoo, Bankman-Fried and a third person as its initial directors.[^8] The complaint alleges that on or around January 25, 2022 Platform Life Sciences pitched Rheingans-Yoo, Bankman-Fried and Beckstead on a 10 million dollar investment; that Rheingans-Yoo wrote that "Nick [Beckstead] had a different idea," an investment of 4 million dollars to "support short-run operations" followed by co-founding a company if it looked like "a multi-$bln opportunity"; that Beckstead approved, on a funding recommendation form dated January 27, 2022, a 3,250,000 dollar "philanthropic grant," increased from the 3 million dollar budget "to support the onboarding of 1-2 trial sites in the Bahamas"; and that because the Foundation had no bank account, Rheingans-Yoo and Beckstead, at Bankman-Fried's direction, caused FTX to wire the money on February 4, 2022. It quotes an internal document Beckstead wrote in May 2022 about the Platform Life Sciences investment: "Why did it need to be through Latona? In case it makes a lot of money. Prefer not to be disclosed on Bahamian entity balance sheet. Main thing: if it makes a ton of money, how open do we need to be about that?" It states that he conceded most of the life sciences investments were "ill-advised and not well-evaluated," that on August 9, 2022 he called a proposed GreenLight investment "unattractive" in part because it came from a "random CEO pitching this to Ross [Rheingans-Yoo] at a conference," that he forwarded Riboscience's deck to Bankman-Fried and Rheingans-Yoo in January 2022, and that on July 15, 2022 the office manager of FTX in [Miami](/places/miami/) introduced Joe Bankman, Bankman-Fried's father, Rheingans-Yoo and Beckstead to the two founders of Genetic Networks, one of them Leland Hartwell. The pleading puts FTX's damages on the Platform Life Sciences transfer at 3.25 million dollars.[^9] The debtors' disclosure statement records that a stipulation of November 1, 2023 stayed the proceeding as to the smaller life sciences defendants and Beckstead; that on January 25, 2024 the debtors reached a settlement with him "pursuant to which he provided documents and information to the Debtors, sat for an interview, and agreed to be deposed in the adversary proceeding if necessary"; that the court approved it on March 13, 2024; and that the debtors dismissed him from the case on March 14, 2024. Platform Life Sciences paid the debtors 16 million dollars, GreenLight 420,918 dollars and Genetic Networks 450,000 dollars.[^14] ### Center for AI Safety and Secure AI Project His website lists, after the Future Fund, a period as policy lead at the [Center for AI Safety](/organizations/center-for-ai-safety/) and his current role as co-founder and chief executive of Secure AI Project, which it describes as developing and advocating "pragmatic policies to reduce risks of severe harm from advanced AI."[^2] [ProPublica](/organizations/propublica/)'s Nonprofit Explorer, drawing on the [Internal Revenue Service](/organizations/internal-revenue-service/) business master file, lists Secure AI Project (EIN 33-2394289) at 584 Castro Street in San Francisco as a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization with a ruling date of January 1, 2026, revenue and assets of 195,025 dollars, and a return for the tax period ending December 2024.[^15] [Dario Amodei](/people/dario-amodei/)'s essay "The Adolescence of Technology" of January 2026, filed by [Anthropic](/organizations/anthropic/) as an exhibit in its suit against the Department of War, thanks "Nick Beckstead" and "Jim McClave," among others, "for their helpful comments on drafts of this essay."[^16] [^1]: Companies House, Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), company no. 07962181, company overview (incorporation and previous company names) and officers register, accessed Oct. 1, 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/officers [^2]: Nick Beckstead, personal website, "About Me," accessed Oct. 1, 2026. https://www.nickbeckstead.com/ [^3]: FTX Recovery Trust's Motion for Reconsideration or to Modify Order Allowing Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 31846, paras. 1-2, 7-10. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.31846.0.pdf [^4]: Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Charity Inquiry: Effective Ventures Foundation UK," published May 22, 2024 (since withdrawn under the Commission's retention policy), sections "Background," "Findings" and "Conclusions." https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk [^5]: "Crypto-backed charity plans closure and £17m Oxford property sale," *Civil Society*, April 3, 2024. https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/crypto-backed-charity-plans-closure-and-17m-oxford-property-sale.html [^6]: "Charity backed by crypto fraudster sells historic property at 'significantly' reduced price," *Third Sector*, February 18, 2026. https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-backed-crypto-fraudster-sells-historic-property-significantly-reduced-price/finance/article/1948737 [^7]: Rob Gledhill, "Announcement on the future of Wytham Abbey," Effective Altruism Forum, March 25, 2024, with update of November 11, 2025. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yggjKEeehsnmMYnZd/announcement-on-the-future-of-wytham-abbey [^8]: Stipulation of Undisputed Facts Relating to Ross Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. Jan. 15, 2025), D.I. 29218, paras. 3-6, 9-13, 18-21, 32-35, 42-46. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.29218.0.pdf [^9]: Complaint, *Alameda Research Ltd. v. Platform Life Sciences Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 23-50444 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. July 19, 2023), filed as D.I. 1881 in No. 22-11068, caption and paras. 1, 5, 9-10, 17-20, 48-51, 53-64, 82, 88, 98, 174-179. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.1881.0.pdf [^10]: First Amended Complaint, *FTX Recovery Trust v. Manifold Markets, Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 24-50214 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 38, paras. 10, 38-40 and n.6. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.194811/gov.uscourts.deb.194811.38.0.pdf [^11]: Trial transcript, *United States v. Bankman-Fried*, No. 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 31, 2023), filed as ECF No. 380, Bankman-Fried cross-examination, pp. 2751-2752. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.380.0.pdf [^12]: Nick Beckstead, Leopold Aschenbrenner, Avital Balwit, Ketan Ramakrishnan and Will MacAskill, "The FTX Future Fund team has resigned," Effective Altruism Forum, published 2022-11-11T02:04 UTC. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xafpj3on76uRDoBja/the-ftx-future-fund-team-has-resigned-1 [^13]: Notice of Filing of Lists of Equity Holders, Exhibit A (WRS Equity Holders List) p. 14 and Exhibit B (FTX Trading Equity Holders List) p. 35 of 69, filed Mar. 13, 2023 in *In re Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd.*, No. 23-10149 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del.), D.I. 76-1. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.189054/gov.uscourts.deb.189054.76.1.pdf [^14]: Disclosure Statement for Debtors' Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization of FTX Trading Ltd. and Its Affiliated Debtors, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD), p. 59 (litigation, item 5), filed as Exhibit C to ECF No. 450, *United States v. Bankman-Fried*, No. 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. June 14, 2024), ECF No. 450-3. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.450.3.pdf [^15]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, organization 332394289, Secure AI Project (IRS EO BMF data, updated Sept. 16, 2026). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/332394289.json [^16]: Dario Amodei, "The Adolescence of Technology," January 2026, acknowledgments, filed as Exhibit 1 to the Declaration of Michael J. Mongan, *Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War*, No. 3:26-cv-01996-RFL (N.D. Cal. Mar. 9, 2026), ECF No. 6-7. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.465515/gov.uscourts.cand.465515.6.7.pdf