Neil Reimer thinks AI cash will return

I nonetheless cannot shake the phrases Neil Reimer mentioned throughout a roundtable dialogue I held in Athens in late Could. A vibrant new place technology festival “I really feel very strongly that there is going to be some redistribution,” he mentioned, speaking in regards to the wealth piling up round AI within the metropolis. he continued. “It might be voluntary or involuntary, however it may occur, and I hope it is voluntary,” he advised me, including that he thinks expertise leaders “can play a number one function in getting it achieved.”

To most individuals, that may sound like normal populism. For Rimer, co-founder of Index Ventures, one of the profitable enterprise corporations of the previous 30 years, it appeared like a surprising factor to say publicly.

Reimer stepped away from day-to-day investing in 2021, spending a lot of his time in Athens, the place his spouse is from and the place his youngsters cherish their Greek passports. He confirmed as much as the interview carrying a rumpled button-down and denims, quite than the quarter-zips and advantageous knitwear attribute of lots of his colleagues. However the index’s current features have been extraordinary. The corporate has raised about $15 billion from outdoors traders since its founding, and exits final 12 months included Figma’s IPO and Google’s acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz. According to reports, the index earned about $9 billion in net gains..

Reimer discovered a technique to give again. He serves on the board of Endeavor Greece, which mentors entrepreneurs in rising markets, and served as chairman of Human Rights Watch from 2019 to 2025. In late 2021, he, his father, and two brothers donated $13 million to McGill College to renovate a campus constructing (now the Rymer Constructing) and set up a brand new Institute for Indigenous Analysis and Information.

Then again, his feedback on redistribution come at an odd time for philanthropy and donations. The Giving Pledge, a promise that Warren Buffett and Invoice Gates made in 2010 to get billionaires to donate half of their wealth to charity, is changing into more and more meaningless. In keeping with the New York Instances, 113 households signed the petition within the first 5 years, adopted by 72, 43, and simply 4 in all of 2024. March report This highlighted how outdated philanthropy has grow to be among the many wealthiest individuals within the tech business. (Be aware for this text: “Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, believes that his enterprise istooth It is a charity exercise. ”)

This sample seems to carry even past pledges. Whole charitable giving in the USA will attain a document $592.5 billion in 2024, however the variety of People really donating is lowering. 5 years in a rowIn keeping with the Stanford Social Innovation Overview, it decreased by 4.5% in 2024 alone. In 2000, two-thirds of households donated. About half now donate, and even rich households are actually giving much less, down from 90% in 2017, in keeping with knowledge from Financial institution of America and Lilly Household Faculties. 81% last year.

This sample additionally seems within the index’s personal portfolio. including humanity. Enterprise Insider just lately requested monetary planner Alex Caswell whether or not his newly rich shoppers, lots of them Anthrop staff tied to efficient altruism, have dedicated to gifting away a big portion of their wealth. Anthropic donates as much as 25% of its staff’ inventory to charity, and whereas a few of Caswell’s shoppers benefit from that, he advised BI, most do not incorporate philanthropy into their plans in any respect. They targeted on angel investing and beginning their very own corporations. “That’s what I see greater than a need to do charity work.” he told the outlet.

Unsurprisingly, the absence of voluntary donations now faces makes an attempt to legislate the outcomes as a substitute. California voters will determine this 12 months on a one-time 5% wealth tax on the state’s billionaires. Some, together with Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Web page, have already moved on. south florida To be on the protected aspect.

OpenAI is reportedly contemplating Scheduled to be listed in 2027And mockingly, one of many causes is especially Presumably, if handed, the tax would calculate web value primarily based on an individual’s worldwide property as of the top of this calendar 12 months.

Naturally, any form of wealth redistribution measure of this scale has many opponents, together with Gov. Gavin Newsom. economist They level out that many developed nations have abolished related wealth taxes since 1990, seeing the shenanigans of their rich residents.

Different choices into consideration are equally controversial. OpenAI helps the federal authorities Investment ratio 5%CEO Sam Altman framed the thought of ​​sharing the advantages of AI with the general public, however critics see it extra as a method to purchase political cowl in Washington. In both case, Silicon Valley was by no means eager on placing Uncle Sam on the cap desk. Veteran investor Roelof Botha joked in one other roundtable with this editor final 12 months.[Some] Probably the most harmful phrases on the planet are: “I am a authorities worker, and I am right here to assist.” ”

It is value contemplating how a lot wealth lies outdoors these techniques. After SpaceX’s IPO final month, Musk turned the primary particular person to be value greater than $1 trillion. Forbes counted 45 new AI billionaires The 2026 rankings alone are value a complete of $2.9 trillion, and that is earlier than Anthropic or OpenAI went public. In the identical BI article about Anthropic’s staff, BI says that after Anthropic and OpenAI full their IPOs, the mixed staff of each corporations may have sufficient wealth to purchase almost a 3rd of all properties within the San Francisco metropolitan space.

that really feel Though unprecedented, it’s debatable whether or not that is an excessive historic instance. Share of wealth held by these on the high 1% of U.S. households reaches 31.7% That is a document for the reason that Federal Reserve started monitoring the information in 1989, and is about the identical because the wealth held by the remaining 90% of households outdoors the highest 10 mixed.

That is nonetheless under the 45% recorded by the highest 1% on the peak of the Gilded Age in 1916. Nevertheless, if you cease the lens all the way down to the tippy high, the photograph is reversed. Famend economist Gabriel Zucman calculated that round 1910, on the peak of the Gilded Age, America’s 4 nice wealth teams collectively accounted for 4% of America’s GDP. At this time, a few of that very same inhabitants now 19 households As a substitute of 4, it is value 14%.

Whether or not voluntary or pressured, Reimer’s two paths have precedent from the final time American wealth focus reached this degree. In 1889, on the peak of the First Gilded Age, Andrew Carnegie revealed a paper arguing that wealthy individuals ought to deal with their wealth as a belief to be distributed for the general public good throughout their lifetime, and that it was shameful to die wealthy. The essay, “gospel of wealth” was the founding doc of recent philanthropy and the mental ancestor of the Giving Pledge.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t proceed down one other path for lengthy. By the mid-Thirties, Louisiana Sen. Huey Lengthy had constructed a nationwide following behind a program referred to as . let’s share our wealthcalls for greater taxes on the rich to supply the funds to ensure a assured earnings for all People. Involved about shedding working-class help for Lengthy, Franklin Roosevelt pushed by means of what the press referred to as a “rich infiltration tax,” elevating the highest marginal earnings tax price to 79 p.c. Though it didn’t end in as a lot redistribution as Lengthy had hoped, it stays the clearest instance in American historical past of politically pressured redistribution after voluntary contributions did not adequately deal with the mounting pressures below it.

None of that is new to Reimer, who has spent his profession within the expertise business. Much more attention-grabbing to him was the “ethical middle of a expertise firm,” a fascination he found as an undergraduate at Stanford College in 1984 when he realized that Apple discounted the primary Macintosh to college students and that Steve Jobs and Apple’s different founders have been, in his phrases, “heroes” who constructed one thing they felt was actually good for the world.

What bothers him now, he mentioned, is listening to his youngsters discuss sure tech corporations the best way earlier generations talked about protection contractors and tobacco producers.

Critics might notice that Mr. Reimer, as an investor in Anthropic and different tech corporations, is a direct beneficiary of the windfall that he says he’ll ultimately need to share. However he hopes different beneficiaries will select to present some again quite than have their cash taken away. There’s a simple method and a tough method to do that, and Reimer is betting that folks will select the simple method earlier than historical past chooses it.