There is a third wave of philanthropy coming to shore. It could be the tide that lifts society’s most important boats, but it will take understanding the currents, careful navigation, courage, and community.
In 2026, the world witnessed the largest initial public offering in history when SpaceX raised $75 billion, achieving a $1.77 trillion valuation. But those massive figures may soon be eclipsed. The two leading artificial intelligence labs, Anthropic and OpenAI, are both racing to IPO in the coming months, each with estimated valuations of at least $1 trillion.
The massive valuations of AI labs mean that thousands of tech workers are suddenly becoming wealthy. It’s estimated an additional $37 billion will flow to the philanthropy sector annually. The question before these tech employees should not be what this wealth can buy, but rather what it can do.
In my nearly two decades of leading strategic philanthropy at the Milken Institute, I have spent ample time with philanthropists, their families, and financial advisors, helping identify how their wealth could be used amid economic booms and busts. Just last year, I spent time interviewing several ultra-high-net-worth families as they grappled with how to transition their legacy of giving to the next generation.
What I’ve come to learn is that philanthropic potential has never been greater than it will soon be. In 2026 alone, US charitable giving rose to $617 billion. This new capital only has a track record of exponential growth. If used strategically, it can be leveraged to unlock $1.5 trillion in catalytic capital or guide trillions in annual government funding. Let us embrace this historic moment with some tested principles of wayfinding in philanthropy.
I’d like to address directly those who are set to garner this new, unfounded wealth for the first time. There will be a litany of ways to use this capital. The first step is to establish an identity of how to give that represents your core values. Some of the best philanthropy starts from a place of personal connection.
Next, these new wealth generators must lean into the complexity of today’s most pressing problems – those that feel nearly impossible to solve, such as closing the hunger gap, estimated on the low end of $33B annually, to managing plastic pollution, estimated on the low end of $50B annually. Just as AI now allows us to find connections, patterns, anomalies, and insights more quickly than ever before, that spirit and mindset can be brought to tackling housing insecurity, climate change, poverty, and so many other multifaceted problems. These challenges aren’t solved with single interventions, but rather by systems-based solutions that may require careful choreography of complementary approaches – research, building novel partnerships, policy change, awareness campaigns, social movements, or impact investment into commercial solutions.
Philanthropy can rewire and transform systems. It is society’s risk capital and can be deployed strategically to derisk solutions so other types of funding – from the government to the capital markets – can flow in. Through our work at the Milken Institute, we have seen time and time again the power of philanthropy to derisk – from advancing unproven, early-stage medical research to identifying and testing novel technologies created by entrepreneurs from around the world with no commercial track records – and creating investable opportunities for other financing that can bring pioneering solutions to market and at scale.
The philanthropy journey can be lonely, but there is an opportunity for connections to learn and grow together. Giving circles are the fastest-growing form of philanthropy, having tripled from 2016 to 2023. At the Milken Institute, for example, we have several opportunities for philanthropists of all backgrounds to gather, connect, and meet on a peer level to learn from one another and explore ways to pool resources to achieve maximum charitable impact. This is a welcome opportunity to invite this new cohort into the fold.
There is a perception that philanthropy is outdated. That it is solely about garnering positive press, and that nonprofits are not equipped to drive the change we need. However, true philanthropy, as I’ve come to know, is not as simple as writing a check, but when done with intention, can lead to real-life, impactful change.
The exact timeline for when these AI companies go public is still in flux, but there is no doubt that new wealth will be coming online soon, and some of it is already here. This is a call to action for this new cohort of captains to continue the legacy set before them by decades of philanthropists. This could be one of the largest infusions of new philanthropic capital in a generation. It must not go to waste. The seas are too stormy, and the stakes are too high.
So as this third wave of philanthropy comes to shore, let’s rally around these new philanthropists. May they find their North Star, set off with the courage and curiosity of our history’s greatest explorers, embrace the unknown and unimaginable, and find out not just where they can go, or what they can buy, but what they can do to make the world a better place.
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