There is a third wave of philanthropy coming to shore. It could be the tide that lifts society\u2019s most important boats, but it will take understanding the currents, careful navigation, courage, and community.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2026, the world witnessed the largest initial public offering in history when SpaceX raised $75 billion, achieving a $1.77 trillion valuation. But those massive figures may soon be eclipsed. The two leading artificial intelligence labs, Anthropic and OpenAI, are both racing to IPO in the coming months, each with estimated valuations of at least $1 trillion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The massive valuations of AI labs mean that thousands of tech workers are suddenly becoming wealthy. It\u2019s estimated an additional $37 billion will flow<\/a> to the philanthropy sector annually. The question before these tech employees should not be what this wealth can buy, but rather what it can do.\u00a0<\/p>\n In my nearly two decades of leading strategic philanthropy at the Milken Institute, I have spent ample time with philanthropists, their families, and financial advisors, helping identify how their wealth could be used amid economic booms and busts. Just last year, I spent time interviewing<\/a> several ultra-high-net-worth families as they grappled with how to transition their legacy of giving to the next generation.<\/p>\n What I\u2019ve come to learn is that philanthropic potential has never been greater than it will soon be. In 2026 alone, US charitable giving rose to $617 billion<\/a>. This new capital only has a track record of exponential growth. If used strategically, it can be leveraged to unlock $1.5 trillion in catalytic capital<\/a> or guide trillions in annual government funding. Let us embrace this historic moment with some tested principles of wayfinding in philanthropy.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to address directly those who are set to garner this new, unfounded wealth for the first time. There will be a litany of ways to use this capital. The first step is to establish an identity of how to give that represents your core values. Some of the best philanthropy starts from a place of personal connection.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next, these new wealth generators must lean into the complexity of today\u2019s most pressing problems \u2013 those that feel nearly impossible to solve, such as closing the hunger gap, estimated on the low end of $33B annually, to managing plastic pollution, estimated on the low end of $50B annually.\u00a0 Just as AI now allows us to find connections, patterns, anomalies, and insights more quickly than ever before, that spirit and mindset can be brought to tackling housing insecurity, climate change, poverty, and so many other multifaceted problems. These challenges aren\u2019t solved with single interventions, but rather by systems-based solutions that may require careful choreography of complementary approaches \u2013 research, building novel partnerships, policy change, awareness campaigns, social movements, or impact investment into commercial solutions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Philanthropy can rewire and transform systems. It is society\u2019s risk capital and can be deployed strategically to derisk solutions so other types of funding \u2013 from the government to the capital markets \u2013 can flow in. Through our work at the Milken Institute, we have seen time and time again the power of philanthropy to derisk \u2013 from advancing unproven, early-stage medical research to identifying and testing novel technologies created by entrepreneurs from around the world with no commercial track records \u2013 and creating investable opportunities for other financing that can bring pioneering solutions to market and at scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n