source: techcrunch ai: neil rimer thinks the ai money is coming back out
level: business
neil rimer, co-founder of index ventures, said at a tech festival in athens that he expects a redistribution of the wealth piling up around ai. he believes it will happen either voluntarily or involuntarily, and hopes tech leaders choose the voluntary path. rimer stepped back from daily investing in 2021 and now spends time in greece, but his firm has seen huge returns from exits like figma's ipo and google's purchase of wiz.
philanthropy among the ultra-rich is fading. the giving pledge has slowed to a trickle, with only four families signing in 2024. total us charitable giving hit a record $592.5 billion in 2024, but the share of households donating has fallen for five straight years. even affluent giving slipped from 90% in 2017 to 81% last year. at index-backed anthropic, employees are more focused on angel investing than charity, despite a donation matching program.
as voluntary giving wanes, forced redistribution is gaining traction. california voters will decide on a one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires. some tech founders have already moved to florida. openai may go public in 2027 partly to avoid the tax. the top 1% of us households now hold 31.7% of wealth, and the very richest 19 households are worth 14% of gdp, far above gilded age levels. rimer hopes tech leaders give back before history forces them to.
why it matters: ai is creating vast new fortunes, and how that wealth is shared will shape policy, public trust, and the industry's social license to operate.
source: techcrunch ai: neil rimer thinks the ai money is coming back out