Hewlett Foundation Grants for Emerging Technologies Security

Hewlett Foundation Grants for Emerging Technologies Security is sponsored by William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Supports institutions working on the intersection of national security and frontier technologies, including AI.

Hewlett Foundation Announces New $100 Million Emerging Technology and Security Initiative You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. Hewlett Foundation Announces New $100 Million Emerging Technology and Security Initiative Five-year effort will support independent institutions working to strengthen security, foster innovation, and keep people safe in an era of transformative change.

(Aspen, Colo. — July 16, 2026) — At the Aspen Security Forum today, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation announced a new, five-year grantmaking effort that aims to provide $100 million through 2031 to help ensure that emerging technologies develop in ways that keep people safe and foster innovation.

The new Emerging Technology and Security Initiative will focus on decisions and developments in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and quantum computing in the United States and around the world.

The initiative builds on $10 million in exploratory grants that the foundation announced in February to leading organizations, including Stanford’s Hoover Institution and Vanderbilt University’s Institute of National Security, with another $10 million in exploratory grantmaking planned for the remainder of 2026. “Rapidly emerging technologies like AI hold extraordinary promise while they also pose novel security challenges.

We view embracing progress and tackling safety risks not as competing approaches but as natural complements,” said Hewlett Foundation President Amber D. Miller. “The public sees industry moving quickly and government moving slowly, and they’re worried that neither can balance innovation and security on their own.

Independent institutions in philanthropy and civil society can bridge that gap. They can help ensure that these transformative technologies strengthen democratic societies and foster innovation in service of human flourishing while keeping people safe from the vulnerabilities they create and bad actors who would misuse them.

” The initiative will support civil society organizations, universities, think tanks, and other independent institutions in the United States and around the world, with grantmaking focused on three priorities: Protect critical infrastructure.

Strengthen the defense of the systems modern life depends on — including power grids, water systems, hospitals, and the information ecosystem — against AI-enabled threats to keep people and communities safe in the U.S. and around the world. Address emerging technology vulnerabilities.

Reduce security risks posed by AI and other fast-moving technologies, beginning with biotechnology and quantum computing, while the window to put safeguards in place remains open. Support global governance. Help U.S. states, allied governments, and other capable actors around the world to develop rules, norms, and frameworks to govern emerging technologies responsibly, while also supporting vital American leadership in these areas.

The Emerging Technology and Security Initiative builds on the foundation’s 60-year history of grantmaking at the intersection of technology and security, including its decade-long Cyber Initiative, which helped establish the field of cyber policy, and earlier initiatives focused on nuclear security and conflict resolution. Consistent with founder William R.

Hewlett’s belief in pragmatism and experimentation, the initiative will fund empirically grounded work focused on near-term, creative solutions to security challenges that deserve greater philanthropic attention.

“Too much of the debate over AI and emerging technology has people talking past each other, while the questions that matter most to ordinary people — about their safety, and how AI will impact their families and their futures — go unanswered,” said Eli Sugarman, Hewlett’s director of Special Projects, who is leading the initiative in its startup phase, and earlier served as director of the foundation’s Cyber Initiative.

“This initiative is about practical, evidence-based problem-solving, funding the experts and organizations doing creative work on critical security challenges, and convening people across government, industry, and civil society who don’t always see eye to eye — or even talk to each other. No single organization or sector can do this alone.

” The foundation views working with a broad coalition of partners as essential to the initiative’s success, including constructive engagement with technology companies on shared priorities around safety and security, while maintaining the independence that makes civil society’s role unique. To learn more about the Emerging Technology and Security Initiative, visit hewlett. org/emerging-tech-and-security .

About the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is a nonpartisan charitable foundation that invests in creative thinkers and problem solvers working to ensure people, communities, and the planet can flourish. Together with our partners, we are harnessing society’s collective capacity to solve our toughest problems. Learn more at hewlett.

org. Director of Communications