Latest news with #Catalyst4
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Forbes Daily: A Major CDC Shift On Covid-19 Vaccines Draws Criticism
No one has donated more to Parkinson's disease research than Google cofounder Sergey Brin, and now he's giving away another $700 million. Brin's recent gift of Alphabet shares was split between three nonprofits, most of which went to his 4-year-old nonprofit Catalyst4. Brin, who is worth an estimated $137 billion and is currently the world's eighth richest person, sees the work as deeply 'personal.' His mother had Parkinson's and he carries a genetic mutation that gives him a much higher chance of getting the disease. His hope is to address both scientific research and eventual treatments for central nervous system diseases, which also include autism and bipolar disorder. The CDC is no longer recommending routine Covid-19 vaccines or boosters for pregnant women and healthy children, a decision that drew criticism as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a longtime vaccine skeptic. FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, who appeared in the video announcement with Kennedy, had written that pregnancy was a high-risk condition for Covid infections earlier this month. The Giving Pledge announced 11 new signatories in 2025 who have pledged to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetime or in their wills—the largest cohort since 2021. Six of the new pledgers are members of Forbes' Billionaires' List, and the richest among them is Canva cofounder and chief product officer Cameron Adams, who is worth an estimated $2.9 billion. Satya Patel Homebrew In Forbes' fourth annual Midas Seed list, a global ranking of the top 25 seed stage investors, Silicon Valley veteran Pejman Nozad stayed in the top spot. And a lack of IPOs and acquisitions means a handful of massive private startups are driving changes in the rankings for even those investors focused on the very earliest stage of a startup's lifecycle. MORE: Satya Patel, a partner at the venture firm Homebrew who ranked No. 13 on this year's Midas Seed list, refers to his broad philosophy as a VC as 'bottom up' investing—betting on companies from 'boring' industries like HR or banking, and gussying them up with high-tech software. He's made early bets on companies like IPO-bound digital bank Chime, payroll unicorn Gusto, and Plaid, which was acquired by Visa in 2020 for $5.3 billion. Following in the footsteps of President Donald Trump's crypto strategy, Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, is raising $2.5 billion to build a corporate bitcoin reserve. According to an SEC filing, the company will sell $1.5 billion in shares and $1 billion in convertible bonds to institutional investors, the proceeds of which will be used for the reserve—making cryptocurrency a core part of its balance sheet. Elon Musk said he is 'disappointed' with President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' bill passed by the House last week, his most direct criticism of a signature White House policy after recently stepping back from his work as the head of DOGE. Musk said the expansive budget bill 'undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' as it is expected to add around $3.3 trillion to the federal debt over the next 10 years, according to an estimate published by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. A body of the United Nations released a new report that projects global temperatures will remain near record levels over the next five years, with a strong chance the 2024 annual temperature record will be broken during this period, likely worsening the impact of climate change and increasing the chances of extreme weather events. There is also a 70% chance that the 5-year average temperature for 2025-2029 will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial numbers—a key benchmark laid out in the Paris Climate Agreement. As President Donald Trump escalates his attacks on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump on Tuesday took credit for preventing 'lots of really bad things' from happening to Russia and said the Russian leader is 'playing with fire.' Trump's criticism comes after Russia launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Ukraine since the start of the war, killing at least 12 people, according to the Associated Press. TRAVEL + LIFESTYLE A string of recent high-profile aviation safety incidents has travelers nervous as summer approaches. A few key ways to reduce risk when flying, experts told Forbes, include avoiding airports with air traffic issues and booking direct flights. Consider your seat and the type of plane you'll be flying in, too—larger airplanes typically have more sophisticated safety systems. General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja, No. 8 on Forbes' 2025 Midas List, believes his venture capital firm is going to transform how Americans access health care. Last year, the firm announced its $485 million purchase of Summa Health, an 8,000-employee hospital system based in Akron, Ohio, with the aim of plugging it into Silicon Valley's innovation engine. That means injecting tech and artificial intelligence into almost every step of the health care process, from checkups to insurance. Buying a hospital is jaw-dropping for a VC. Tech investors preach disruption, but they are deeply conservative when it comes to running their own funds. General Catalyst wants to break that mold. Since 2018, it has morphed from a typical VC partnership to a multi-hyphenate investment house: There's the firm's 'creation' fund, which spins up new AI companies aimed at remaking dusty industries like accounting or customer service. Then there's the General Catalyst Institute, a think tank looking to shape technology policy around the world, and GC Wealth, a white-glove broker meant to woo well-heeled founders away from private banks. That makes Taneja, 50, one of the champions of a new class of venture capitalist. 'Mega funds' are the sometimes-sniffy label for General Catalyst and peers like Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed and Thrive Capital, Josh Kushner's outfit. Managing tens of billions of dollars, they are still minnows compared to Blackstone ($1 trillion in assets) and KKR ($660 billion), but Taneja's ambition isn't to be the biggest investor. Instead, he wants General Catalyst to be a 'strategic conglomerate.' But perhaps the biggest risk is that General Catalyst is doing too much. 'I get that question a lot,' Taneja says. He says it's a matter of having 'leadership bandwidth' and a good operating model, comparing the company to Amazon, which expanded from books to data centers to grocery stores to moviemaking. WHY IT MATTERS Taneja has his critics, too. General Catalyst's industrial-scale investing barely resembles venture capital, some say. Others snipe, discreetly, about General Catalyst's focus shifting from generating returns from financing startups to 'farming fees' from ever-multiplying funds. But Taneja's supporters are willing to back his bold vision thanks to a near-15-year winning streak. Since moving to Silicon Valley from Boston in 2011, Taneja has backed payment giant Stripe (last valued at $91 billion), defense startup Anduril (in funding talks at a $28 billion valuation) and a string of health care unicorns like Commure (valued at $6 billion). MORE Ranking The World's Top Venture Capitalists In 2025 The Trump Administration paused interviews for new student visa applicants as it weighs expanded social media screening, a potential indication of a wider crackdown on international students: More than 1.1 million: The number of international students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Institute of International Education $43.8 billion: The amount per year international students contribute to the U.S. economy $100 million: The value of the remaining government contracts with Harvard that the Trump Administration canceled Tuesday Remote work gives employees greater flexibility, but it can also be isolating. To help feel less lonely when working from home, try organizing occasional meetups if your colleagues are nearby, and if not, organize virtual lunches where the discussion isn't about work. It can be easy to blur the lines between personal and professional if your home is also your office, so be sure to dedicate a designated workspace, even if it's just a small corner. Users reported outages for a popular streaming service Tuesday, the latest server disruption for the company. Which streaming platform is it? A. Netflix B. Spotify C. Apple Music D. Hulu Check your answer. Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.
Forbes
27-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Sergey Brin's Latest Stock Gift Signals Shift In Philanthropic Strategy
Google cofounder Sergey Brin is back in the office working on AI. But he's also ramping up his philanthropic investments, largely centering conditions of the central nervous week Google cofounder Sergey Brin gave away $700 million worth of Alphabet shares. The gifts were split between three nonprofits, according to a representative of Brin's family office. Nearly 80% of the shares—worth nearly $550 million—went to Brin's four-year-old nonprofit Catalyst4, while the remaining shares went to the Sergey Brin Family Foundation (14%) and Michael J. Fox Foundation (7%), which supports research and treatments for Parkinson's disease. Brin, 51, is worth an estimated $137 billion and is the world's eighth richest person. He's the largest individual donor—at more than $1.5 billion—to research on Parkinson's disease, which afflicted his mother, who died last year, and for which he has a genetic mutation that means he has a much higher chance of getting the disease than the general population. And he's made a big commitment to fund research into the causes of bipolar disorder and autism, as Forbes wrote about in February. Brin's team has created an umbrella group to oversee research in these areas called CNS Quest. (CNS stands for 'central nervous system.) His significant gift of Alphabet shares to Catalyst4 will, in large part, power the work of the CNS Quest, per Brin's representative. Brin sees his philanthropic mission as deeply 'personal because it starts with Parkinson's disease, and I carry one of the genetic mutations discovered, the G2019S mutation to the LRRK2 gene,' he wrote to Forbes in February. He keeps his life private, but all three conditions under the CNS Quest have affected members of his family. Brin's increased giving to Catalyst4, a type of nonprofit called a 501(c)(4) that can lobby as well as own entire for-profit companies, may be part of a broader shift in his giving strategy. To date, Brin has donated at least $1.5 billion to Catalyst4. In late 2021, Brin seeded the entity with more than $450 million worth of donated Alphabet and Tesla stock, and added another $615 million in 2023. Catalyst4 is still smaller than Brin's decade-old, more traditional nonprofit, the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, which had $4 billion in assets as of the end of 2023. But in recent years he's been giving more to Catalyst4 than to his family foundation, which also funds various climate and education initiatives. With Catalyst4, Brin hopes that his efforts can address both basic science research and eventual treatments and therapies; the latter most often comes from for-profit companies. 'What we've learned and seen from our other initiatives is that it's really important to fund both things in parallel, and have that feedback loop across both the science and the clinical side of things, like trial design, drug development and therapeutics,' Ekemini Riley, who has a PhD in molecular medicine and helps lead the CNS Quest initiatives, told Forbes in February. In some cases, this means investing in biopharma companies through Catalyst4. Brin has been backing startups and venture capital funds that are working on for-profit solutions and treatments, investing more than $600 million to date, including about $400 million in 2024 alone. Per nonprofit tax filings, Catalyst4's portfolio includes a majority stake in biopharma firm MapLight, which is developing treatments for brain diseases and autism. MapLight is currently enrolling patients in Phase 2 clinical trials for a drug candidate that aims to help with 'social communication deficits' in certain autistic people. In February, Catalyst4 also led an $80 million funding round in Stellaromics, which makes detailed three-dimensional maps of gene activity in slices of tissue for other companies to use in drug development. Any profits from investments must be reinvested into the nonprofit, and Catalyst4 has given some portfolio companies 'philanthropic dollars' (often some 25% of the total investment) along with its equity investment, according to a person familiar with Brin's philanthropy. It's still unclear how exactly Brin will use his latest gift to further the goals of the CNS Quest and Catalyst4. But the ramp-up will certainly continue, especially crucial as the Trump administration continues to cut funding for medical research and clinical trials.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sergey Brin gave a $500 million donation to his own nonprofit
Sergey Brin gave Alphabet stock worth almost $700 million to philanthropic causes. The largest donation went to his own nonprofit called Catalyst4. Brin has a history of large stock donations, including one worth $600 million in May 2023. The biggest chunk of Google cofounder Sergey Brin's recent gift of Alphabet stock worth almost $700 million went to his nonprofit called Catalyst4, Bloomberg reported. The transfer of just over 4 million Alphabet shares was revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week that did not disclose the recipients. A spokesperson for Brin's family office, Bayshore Global, said the shares were given to three philanthropic organizations, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. Bayshore Global didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Brin gave 3.2 million shares to his own nonprofit called Catalyst4, per the report. The organization, which he launched in 2021, focuses on health and solutions to the climate crisis. The investment vehicle was founded with the proceeds of Brin's 2021 decision to sell his stake in Tesla. Brin had invested $500,000 in Elon Musk's EV maker in 2008. Half the donated Alphabet shares were Class A stock, which each carry one vote, while the remainder were Class C shares that have no voting rights. A stock closed at $168.56 on Wednesday, and C closed at about $170, meaning the donation was worth more than $500 million. Brin, who is 10th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of about $143 billion, also gave more than 580,000 Alphabet shares to his family foundation and 282,000 to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which aims to help find a cure for Parkinson's disease. It's not the first time Brin has made large gifts of stock. In May 2023, after the launch of Google's AI search, he gave away about $600 million worth of shares. In May and November 2024, he made gifts of shares worth more than $100 million. Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sergey Brin gave a $500 million donation to his own nonprofit
Sergey Brin gave Alphabet stock worth almost $700 million to philanthropic causes. The largest donation went to his own nonprofit called Catalyst4. Brin has a history of large stock donations, including one worth $600 million in May 2023. The biggest chunk of Google cofounder Sergey Brin's recent gift of Alphabet stock worth almost $700 million went to his nonprofit called Catalyst4, Bloomberg reported. The transfer of just over 4 million Alphabet shares was revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week that did not disclose the recipients. A spokesperson for Brin's family office, Bayshore Global, said the shares were given to three philanthropic organizations, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. Bayshore Global didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Brin gave 3.2 million shares to his own nonprofit called Catalyst4, per the report. The organization, which he launched in 2021, focuses on health and solutions to the climate crisis. The investment vehicle was founded with the proceeds of Brin's 2021 decision to sell his stake in Tesla. Brin had invested $500,000 in Elon Musk's EV maker in 2008. Half the donated Alphabet shares were Class A stock, which each carry one vote, while the remainder were Class C shares that have no voting rights. A stock closed at $168.56 on Wednesday, and C closed at about $170, meaning the donation was worth more than $500 million. Brin, who is 10th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of about $143 billion, also gave more than 580,000 Alphabet shares to his family foundation and 282,000 to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which aims to help find a cure for Parkinson's disease. It's not the first time Brin has made large gifts of stock. In May 2023, after the launch of Google's AI search, he gave away about $600 million worth of shares. In May and November 2024, he made gifts of shares worth more than $100 million. Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
26-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Sergey Brin gave a $500 million donation to his own nonprofit
The biggest chunk of Google cofounder Sergey Brin 's recent gift of Alphabet stock worth almost $700 million went to his nonprofit called Catalyst4, Bloomberg reported. The transfer of just over 4 million Alphabet shares was revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week that did not disclose the recipients. A spokesperson for Brin's family office, Bayshore Global, said the shares were given to three philanthropic organizations, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. Bayshore Global didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Brin gave 3.2 million shares to his own nonprofit called Catalyst4, per the report. The organization, which he launched in 2021, focuses on health and solutions to the climate crisis. The investment vehicle was founded with the proceeds of Brin's 2021 decision to sell his stake in Tesla. Brin had invested $500,000 in Elon Musk's EV maker in 2008. Half the donated Alphabet shares were Class A stock, which each carry one vote, while the remainder were Class C shares that have no voting rights. A stock closed at $168.56 on Wednesday, and C closed at about $170, meaning the donation was worth more than $500 million. Brin, who is 10th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of about $143 billion, also gave more than 580,000 Alphabet shares to his family foundation and 282,000 to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which aims to help find a cure for Parkinson's disease. It's not the first time Brin has made large gifts of stock. In May 2023, after the launch of Google's AI search, he gave away about $600 million worth of shares. In May and November 2024, he made gifts of shares worth more than $100 million.
