About

The Foundation for American Innovation champions the technology, talent, and ideas essential to American prosperity, security, and flourishing.

We are builders, hackers, and scholars advancing an optimistic vision of the future—aligning technology with human ends to forge a more perfect union between innovation and the American republic.

Realizing this future requires far tighter coupling between innovators and policymakers than exists today. FAI works to make that possible. We help policymakers become more effective stewards of innovation, and we equip technologists and founders to better understand, engage with, and ultimately improve the machinery of governance. Our work spans the domains most critical to the vitality of the American republic: technology and statecraft; frontier artificial intelligence; governance futurism; energy and infrastructure; and science and innovation.

Our outputs span impact-driven research, sharp commentary, legislative engagement, and technical tools that translate ideas into practice. We convene policymakers, technologists, and civil society leaders through events in major tech hubs across the country. And we run talent-development programs to ensure the next generation of public leaders has the domain expertise required to govern in a digital era.

The Foundation for American Innovation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, established in Silicon Valley in 2014 as Lincoln Labs/Lincoln Network, and refounded in 2023 as FAI. Today we are a national technology think tank headquartered steps from the U.S. Capitol Complex. You can visit us by appointment at 408 C St NE, Washington, DC.

Our major philanthropic supporters have included Arnold Ventures, the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation, the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation, Coefficient Giving, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, DonorsTrust, the Doris Duke Foundation, the Ethereum Foundation, the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Miles Foundation, the Proton Foundation, Recoding America Fund, Renaissance Philanthropy, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Searle Freedom Trust, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Stand Together Trust, Survival and Flourishing Fund, the Walton Family Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and many others. Our corporate supporters and event sponsors have included a16z, Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic, Astro Mechanica, Boom Supersonic, Cognition AI, DuckDuckGo, ExxonMobil, First Solar, Hadrian, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Narya Capital, New American Industrial Alliance, NRG Energy, Oklo, OpenAI, Paradigm Capital, Playground Global, Qualcomm, Rainmaker, Reflection AI, Shopify, Southern Company, T-Mobile, Uber, Ulysses, Variance, Waymo, XYZ Venture Capital, YCombinator, Yelp, Zanskar Geothermal, and various others. We are also grateful to our generous individual supporters who have chosen to remain anonymous.

If you would like to support our work, please consider donating or sponsoring one of our events. You can view our deck here. And you can learn about our annual gala at: www.innovationgala.org.

Open Voice Policy

The Foundation for American Innovation does not adhere to a one-voice policy. FAI staff are free to have their own views, endorse positions, talk to media, and openly disagree with their peers as long as this is consistent with FAI’s work, values, and mission. As a result, FAI generally does not take positions as an institution, instead relying on the expertise and judgment of its team.

FAI Action: Bridging Research and Advocacy

FAI is a 501(c)(3) public charity focused on educational programs and research. For legislative advocacy and policy lobbying, we partner with our affiliated sister organization, FAI Action, a 501(c)(4) entity. To learn about FAI Action's advocacy work, visit: www.faiaction.org. Please note: FAI Action is a separate legal entity. Contributions or gifts to FAI Action are not tax-deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

Financials & Reports

Form 990 Filings

Quarterly Updates

National Interest Gift Policy

FAI does not accept donations from foreign governments. In addition, given rising influence spending by U.S. adversaries and state-backed firms—including TikTok, Huawei, Tencent, DJI—FAI has adopted a strict policy of refusing all gifts from entities with substantial ties to any country listed as a U.S. foreign adversary under 15 CFR 791.4 (China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela). This includes any gift or sponsorship originating with a foreign government, foreign national, foreign firm, foreign-controlled subsidiary, or other entity aligned with a foreign adversary against the U.S. national interest.

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