Laude Institute

The Laude Institute is a research initiative launched on June 23, 2025, by Andy Konwinski, a co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity. With an initial personal commitment of $100 million, the institute's mission is to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world application by supporting computer scientists in turning their work into tangible impact. Konwinski's journey, from his PhD work on Apache Spark at UC Berkeley to co-founding Databricks, shaped his conviction that research breakthroughs must be 'shipped' to matter. The institute was co-founded by a team including Chris Rytting, K. Tighe, Justin Fiedler, and Lindsey Gregory, and is guided by a board that includes prominent figures like Jeff Dean from Google, Joelle Pineau from Meta, and Dave Patterson from UC Berkeley.

The institute operates as a nonprofit with a public benefit corporation arm, providing a structure that allows it to move quickly while remaining focused on beneficial outcomes rather than purely commercial interests. It offers grants and hands-on support to researchers, aiming to catalyze work that addresses significant societal challenges in areas like healthcare, climate change, and civic discourse. The business model is not that of a traditional corporate lab but rather a grant-driven fund that empowers independent, academic-led projects. It also has a venture arm, Laude Ventures, co-founded with Pete Sonsini, which invests in startups and has backed ventures like the agent startup Arcade.

Laude's programs are structured into two main tracks: 'Slingshots' and 'Moonshots'. Slingshots provide fast, low-friction grants and hands-on assistance for early-stage research and open-source projects. Moonshots are designed to back ambitious, long-term research with multi-year, multi-million dollar labs to tackle major challenges. The institute's first major grant is a $15 million, five-year commitment to help launch a new AI Systems Lab at UC Berkeley, which will focus on developing scalable and open AI systems.

Keywords: AI research, grantmaking, computer science, research commercialization, academic spin-offs, social impact, nonprofit, venture philanthropy, open-source projects, research funding