OpenAI said on August 17 that it is funding 14 independent research projects studying how artificial intelligence could reshape economies and societies, backing them with $1 million in direct grants plus up to $1 million more in OpenAI API credits.

The recipients, based in the United States, the European Union, Brazil, Singapore and South Korea, were chosen from more than 400 applications, according to OpenAI. Selected teams have six months to turn broad policy proposals into concrete work, examining what could realistically be implemented and at what cost, with findings expected to be published in 2027.

Who got funded

The list spans the ideological spectrum. In the United States, the American Enterprise Institute is partnering with the Urban Institute to study how AI is disrupting the workforce, while the Progressive Policy Institute will design a “person-based benefits system” meant to function alongside an AI-altered labor market. The Tax Foundation is also among the US grantees.

Security-focused recipients include the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the Institute for Security and Technology and the Council on Strategic Risks, which will examine AI’s effect on biosecurity risk and safety oversight. In Europe, the Centre for European Policy Studies and the European Centre for International Political Economy will study similar questions under EU rules. Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Yonsei University in South Korea, and two Brazilian institutions — the Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada and a University of São Paulo-affiliated research hospital — round out the international cohort.

Part of a broader policy push

The grants follow up on a promise OpenAI made in its April 2026 paper “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age,” which floated ideas such as public wealth funds and a shorter work week as ways to spread AI’s economic gains more broadly. OpenAI said the goal is to make sure decisions about how AI is deployed are shaped by democratic institutions and public debate rather than by technology companies alone.

The program adds to a wider pattern of AI labs and governments funding outside policy work on AI’s disruptive effects, following moves like Australia’s newly launched AI Royal Commission and the US Energy Department’s own push to fund open AI models for public research.