Anthropic · OpenAI · Stripe · Wall Street · U.S. · MIT Technology Review
Stripe, Anthropic, and OpenAI are backing an effort to stop respiratory infections
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The common cold comes for them all—often more than once a year.
Key facts
- The US funds about $6.5 billion a year in virus research through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, or NIAID
- Now the payment company Stripe, founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison, says it will fund a new $500 million nonprofit whose goal is preventing both the common cold and the flu
- Stripe previously organized a $1.8 billion program called Frontier to encourage the development of carbon removal technology, as a way of countering climate change
- According to Ransohoff, Intercept’s advisors will include Peter Marks, a former top FDA official, as well as Moncef Slaoui, the pharmaceutical executive who led the US coronavirus vaccine effort
Summary
Now the payment company Stripe, founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison, says it will fund a new $500 million nonprofit whose goal is preventing both the common cold and the flu. The new organization, called Intercept, will use grants and investments to back prevention approaches, including vaccines, as well as large-scale air-cleaning systems for schools, offices, and other public spaces. In addition to Stripe, other funders include Anthropic, Flu Lab, and the OpenAI Foundation, as well as Bill Gates and several traders at the quantitative investing fund Jane Street Capital, according to an Intercept spokesperson. “I think we treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but have underweighted the burden that they impose on society,” says Nan Ransohoff, the Stripe executive leading the initiative along with Charlie Petty, a venture capitalist who joined Stripe this year.