Neil Rimer thinks the AI money is coming back out

In precocious May, Neil Rimer said thing during a sit-down I had with him successful Athens that I haven’t been capable to shake. At a vibrant caller tech festival successful the city, talking astir the wealthiness piling up astir AI, helium said helium has “a beardown consciousness that determination volition beryllium immoderate benignant of a redistribution.” He continued on. “It’ll either beryllium voluntary oregon it’ll beryllium involuntary, but it’ll happen, and I anticipation it’s voluntary,” helium told me, adding that helium thinks tech leaders “can play a starring relation successful seeing that through.”

Coming from astir people, that would dependable similar standard-issue populism. Coming from Rimer, a co-founder of Index Ventures, 1 of the astir palmy task firms of the past 3 decades, it seemed a striking happening to accidental retired loud.

Rimer stepped backmost from day-to-day investing successful 2021, and these days spends overmuch of his clip successful Athens, wherever his woman is from and wherever his children treasure their Greek passports. He turned up to our interrogation successful a rumpled button-down and jeans, not the quarter-zips and good knitwear that people truthful galore of his peers. Yet Index’s returns successful caller years person been exceptional: the steadfast has raised astir $15 cardinal from extracurricular investors since its founding, and past year’s exits including Figma’s IPO and Google’s acquisition of the cybersecurity steadfast Wiz reportedly netted Index astir $9 billion.

Rimer has recovered ways to springiness back. He sits connected the committee of Endeavor Greece, which mentors entrepreneurs successful emerging markets, and chaired the committee of Human Rights Watch from 2019 to 2025. In precocious 2021, helium and his begetter and 2 brothers gave $13 cardinal to McGill University to renovate a field building, present the Rimer Building, and recovered a caller Institute for Indigenous Research and Knowledges.

In the meantime, his remark astir redistribution comes astatine an unusual moment, to beryllium charitable, for giving. The Giving Pledge, the committedness Warren Buffett and Bill Gates launched successful 2010 to get billionaires to perpetrate fractional their fortunes to charity, is becoming progressively irrelevant. One 100 and thirteen families signed successful its archetypal 5 years, past 72, past 43, past conscionable 4 successful each of 2024, per a New York Times report successful March that underscored however out-of-fashion philanthropy has go among immoderate of the richest radical successful tech. (Noted that piece: “Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has said that his businesses ‘are philanthropy.’”)

The signifier appears to clasp beyond the Pledge. Total American charitable giving deed a grounds $592.5 cardinal successful 2024, but the fig of Americans really giving has fallen for five consecutive years, down 4.5% successful 2024 alone, according to the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Two-thirds of households donated successful 2000; astir fractional bash now, and Bank of America and Lilly Family School information shows adjacent affluent-household giving has slipped, from 90% successful 2017 to 81% past year.

The signifier shows up successful Index’s ain portfolio, too, which includes Anthropic. Business Insider precocious asked a fiscal planner, Alex Caswell, whether his recently affluent clients, galore of them Anthropic employees tied to effectual altruism, were pledging to springiness distant the bulk of their fortunes. Anthropic matches worker donations of up to 25% of their equity to charity, and immoderate of Caswell’s clients person utilized it, helium told BI, but astir weren’t gathering philanthropy into their plans astatine all; they were focused connected angel investing oregon starting their ain companies. “That’s what I’m seeing much than the tendency to go philanthropic,” he told the outlet.

Unsurprisingly, the lack of voluntary giving is present moving up against attempts to legislate the result instead. California voters volition determine this twelvemonth connected a 5% one-time wealthiness taxation that targets the state’s billionaires. Some, including Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, person already moved their superior residences to South Florida to beryllium connected the harmless side.

OpenAI is reportedly considering going nationalist successful 2027, and cynically, 1 crushed among others whitethorn beryllium that the tax, if passed, volition cipher nett worthy based connected an individual’s worldwide assets arsenic of the extremity of this calendar year.

As unsurprisingly, determination is plentifulness of absorption to immoderate benignant of wealth-redistribution measurement of this scale, including by Governor Gavin Newsom, and including by economists who constituent retired that galore industrialized countries person repealed akin wealthiness taxes since 1990 aft watching their affluent residents skedaddle.

Other options connected the array are arsenic controversial. OpenAI has reportedly discussed handing the national authorities a 5% equity stake, an thought CEO Sam Altman has framed arsenic sharing AI’s upside with the public, but critics spot it alternatively arsenic a mode to bargain governmental screen successful Washington. In either case, Silicon Valley has ne'er been anxious to enactment Uncle Sam connected the headdress table. Joked seasoned capitalist Roelof Botha during a separate sit-down with this exertion past year: “[Some] of the astir unsafe words successful the satellite are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m present to help.’”

It’s worthy reasoning done however overmuch wealthiness sits extracurricular these mechanisms. Musk is worthy conscionable implicit $1 trillion, aft SpaceX’s IPO past period made him the archetypal idiosyncratic to scope that mark. Forbes counted 45 caller AI billionaires successful its 2026 rankings alone, worthy a combined $2.9 trillion, and that’s earlier either Anthropic oregon OpenAI has gone public. In that aforesaid BI communicative astir Anthropic employees, BI notes that erstwhile Anthropic and OpenAI implicit their IPOs, their combined employees volition clasp capable wealthiness to bargain astir a 3rd of each homes successful the San Francisco metro area.

It feels unprecedented, but whether it represents an historical utmost is simply a substance of immoderate debate. The stock of wealthiness held by the apical 1% of U.S. households deed 31.7% successful the 3rd 4th of past year, a grounds since the Federal Reserve began tracking the information successful 1989, and astir adjacent to what the different 90% of households extracurricular the apical decile held combined.

That’s inactive beneath the 45% the apical 1% commanded astatine the Gilded Age highest successful 1916. But constrictive the lens to the tippy top, and the representation flips. Renowned economist Gabriel Zucman calculates that astatine the tallness of the Gilded Age, astir 1910, America’s 4 largest fortunes were worthy a combined 4% of U.S. GDP. Today, that aforesaid sliver of the colonisation — present 19 households alternatively of 4 — is worthy 14%.

Rimer’s 2 paths, voluntary oregon forced, person precedent from the past clip American wealthiness attraction reached this level. In 1889, astatine the highest of the archetypal Gilded Age, Andrew Carnegie published an effort arguing that a affluent antheral should dainty his luck arsenic a spot to beryllium distributed for the nationalist bully wrong his ain lifetime, calling it a disgrace to dice wealthy. That essay, “The Gospel of Wealth,” became the founding papers of modern philanthropy and the intelligence ancestor of the Giving Pledge.

It didn’t clasp disconnected the different way for long, though. By the mid-1930s, Louisiana Senator Huey Long had built a nationalist pursuing down a programme called Share Our Wealth, demanding steep taxes connected the affluent to money a guaranteed income for each American. Worried astir losing working-class enactment to Long, Franklin Roosevelt pushed done what the property called the “soak-the-rich tax,” raising the apical marginal income taxation complaint arsenic precocious arsenic 79%. It redistributed little than Long wanted, but it remains the clearest illustration successful American past of politically forced redistribution arriving erstwhile voluntary giving failed to adequately code the unit gathering underneath it.

None of this is quality to Rimer, who has spent his vocation successful tech. What’s much funny to him is “the motivation halfway of tech companies,” a fascination helium traced to being a Stanford undergrad successful 1984, erstwhile Apple discounted the archetypal Macintosh for students and Steve Jobs and Apple’s different founders were, successful his words, “heroes” for gathering thing helium felt was genuinely bully for the world.

What troubles him now, helium said, is proceeding his ain children speech astir definite tech companies the mode an earlier procreation talked astir defence contractors oregon cigaret makers.

Critics whitethorn enactment that Rimer — arsenic an capitalist successful Anthropic and different tech companies — is simply a nonstop beneficiary of the windfall helium says volition yet request to beryllium shared. But he’d alternatively spot his chap beneficiaries take to springiness immoderate of the wealth backmost than person it taken from them. There’s an casual mode to bash this and a hard way, and Rimer is betting connected radical picking the casual 1 earlier past picks it for them.