— Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan announced a major restructuring of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative at an event in Redwood City, California, shifting the organization decisively toward artificial intelligence and scientific research. The move, unveiled at Biohub’s offices, includes acquiring the team from A.I. start-up Evolutionary Scale and naming Alex Rives as the Initiative’s new head of science. Leaders said the reorientation aims to fund work that yields durable, generational advances rather than initiatives they consider more politically vulnerable. The organization also pledged to expand computing capacity tenfold by 2028 to accelerate A.I.-driven biological research.
Key Takeaways
- Founded in 2015, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) has committed more than $7 billion in grants over the past decade and the founders pledged to give away nearly all their wealth — roughly $256 billion.
- CZI announced on Nov. 6, 2025, that Biohub will lead a network of research centers concentrating on artificial intelligence and scientific research.
- The organization acquired the team from Evolutionary Scale and appointed Alex Rives, that company’s chief scientist, as CZI’s head of science; the purchase price was not disclosed.
- CZI leaders said they will increase computing power for A.I.-enabled biology work by a factor of ten by 2028 to support projects such as virtual cell maps and large language models for biological reasoning.
- Over recent years CZI has scaled back funding in education, housing and certain local programs; some diversity initiatives were ended after January 2017 and a Dr. Chan–founded school closed in April 2025.
- Meta, where Mr. Zuckerberg is CEO, is simultaneously investing heavily in A.I., reporting at least $70 billion in A.I.-related spending in 2025 to remain competitive.
Background
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was created in 2015 with broad ambitions: to improve education, influence public policy and accelerate cures for disease. Over its first decade the organization committed more than $7 billion in grants and the founders publicly pledged to donate essentially all their wealth — an amount CZI has put at approximately $256 billion. Early programming mixed science funding with grants in education, housing and local services, and the group at times engaged in policy and social-justice work.
Beginning in the late 2010s and accelerating into the 2020s, CZI’s profile shifted. Internal reorganizations followed changes in the couple’s relationship with political engagement; after January 2017 CZI ended some diversity-based recruiting and reassigned or let go employees involved in those efforts. In 2025 the organization reduced or suspended several local grants and Dr. Chan’s low-income school announced closure in April. These moves preceded the new structural shift toward science announced in November 2025.
Main Event
At Biohub’s Redwood City office on Wednesday, CZI leaders described a restructured organization that places Biohub at the center of a science-first strategy. The Initiative said it would prioritize projects that combine biological research with advanced A.I., and it formalized leadership by bringing Alex Rives onboard as head of science. CZI acquired the Evolutionary Scale team to deepen its A.I. capabilities; officials declined to disclose financial terms of that transaction.
Specific research priorities outlined by CZI include building a virtual platform for mapping cells, developing a large language model aimed at biological reasoning, and deploying A.I. tools to analyze genetic sequences for disease detection. Leaders emphasized using computational experiments to scale and accelerate lab work, with the stated goal of running more rapid, cost-efficient virtual experiments than current bench processes allow.
The announcement also noted personnel changes: Steve Quake, who had been CZI’s head of science, stepped down in September 2025. Dr. Chan, a pediatrician now aged 40, and Mr. Zuckerberg framed the shift as a deliberate narrowing of focus to areas they judge to deliver the highest long-term return on philanthropic investment.
Analysis & Implications
The reorientation toward A.I. and basic science represents a strategic tightening of CZI’s mission. Concentrating resources on computational biology and A.I. could produce foundational tools — like virtual cell atlases or domain-specific language models — that benefit a wide range of biomedical research. If successful, these platforms may accelerate discovery cycles and reduce costs for academic and applied science communities.
However, the move deepens the role of a well-capitalized private foundation in shaping scientific agendas. Large-scale computing and A.I. infrastructure concentrated under CZI and Biohub may set standards and priorities that public funders or smaller institutions struggle to influence. That raises questions about transparency, data access, and governance for tools that could become central to biomedical research.
Domestically, the decision to scale back education and housing grants while boosting science funding has concrete trade-offs. Communities that previously received CZI support may face funding shortfalls, particularly in local services where alternative donors are scarce. Internationally, CZI’s investments in A.I.-driven biology could accelerate global research capacity, but they may also intensify competition between private philanthropy, academic institutions and commercial labs for talent and computational resources.
Comparison & Data
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| CZI founding year | 2015 |
| Total committed grants (first decade) | Over $7 billion |
| Founders’ pledged giving | Approximately $256 billion |
| Meta A.I. spending (2025) | At least $70 billion |
| Planned computing increase | 10× by 2028 |
These figures show the scale of CZI’s resources and how its priorities align with broader industry investment. The $7 billion in grants demonstrates substantial past activity across sectors; the $256 billion pledge, if fulfilled over time, would make CZI one of the largest private sources of philanthropic capital globally. Meta’s $70 billion A.I. expenditure in 2025 underscores a related corporate trend toward massive computational investment that mirrors CZI’s new emphasis.
Reactions & Quotes
At the Redwood City event, Mr. Zuckerberg framed the shift as a desire for durable impact, distinguishing long-term scientific infrastructure from programs he described as more susceptible to frequent policy shifts. His brief on-stage comments were highlighted by the organization and cited in subsequent coverage.
“We want to focus on something that wasn’t going to be undone every few years.”
Mark Zuckerberg
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative issued a statement describing Biohub as the central node for the new science network and outlined specific projects that will receive initial attention. Observers in academia noted that the arrival of a well-funded private actor into computational biology could speed tool development but also complicate collaborations if standards for data and model sharing are not explicit.
“Biohub will lead a network of research centers focused on artificial intelligence and scientific research,”
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (press)
Unconfirmed
- The exact financial terms of the Evolutionary Scale team acquisition have not been released and remain undisclosed by CZI.
- Details about how tenfold computing capacity will be provisioned — whether via leased cloud, owned data centers, or partnerships — were not specified.
- Precise future grant allocations and timelines for phased reductions in education and housing funding are not publicly available yet.
Bottom Line
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s November 6, 2025, restructuring marks a clear pivot: resources and leadership are being concentrated on A.I. and scientific research through Biohub, with an immediate emphasis on computational biology projects and substantial increases in computing capacity. The acquisition of the Evolutionary Scale team and appointment of Alex Rives signal an operational commitment to building internal A.I. capability rather than solely funding external groups.
Readers should watch three indicators to judge the initiative’s long-term impact: whether CZI’s tools and data are openly accessible to the wider research community, how the organization balances its science push with lingering obligations to education and housing partners, and whether the promised computing scale-up is realized by the 2028 target. The shift could accelerate biomedical discovery, but it will also raise governance and equity questions that require ongoing public scrutiny.
Sources
- The New York Times — media reporting on the Nov. 6, 2025 announcement and event coverage.
- Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) — organization website and press materials (official/organization).
- Biohub — research network and program descriptions (research institution).
- Meta Platforms, Inc. — corporate filings and investor communications referencing A.I. investments (official/corporate).