"Mark Zuckerberg's decision to cut off funding to the pro‑immigration group FWD.us marks a sharp turn away from the high-profile social advocacy that once defined his philanthropy, even as MacKenzie Scott is emerging as the era's most aggressive backer of equity- and DEI-driven causes. The split shows a broader divergence in tech philanthropy: one billionaire channeling resources into science and AI infrastructure, the other pouring unrestricted billions into institutions serving communities historically excluded from power and wealth"
"For more than a decade, FWD.us was a marquee example of Zuckerberg's attempt to fuse Silicon Valley muscle with Washington policy, pushing immigration and criminal justice reform from the political center. But in 2025, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) quietly stopped funding FWD.us-its first year without support from Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan, or their philanthropy-formally ending a relationship that began with a 2013 launch op‑ed and hundreds of millions of dollars in backing,Business Insider reports."
"The wind‑down was years in the making: by late 2022, CZI had already begun pivoting away from social advocacy, providing "foundational" funding meant to give FWD.us runway before the partnership ended, and in April 2025, the break was formalized. The timing now reads less like a slow fade than a strategic alignment with Zuckerberg's rightward political recalibration in the Trump era, as Meta relaxed content rules criticized by conservatives, while the company and its CEO leaned into the new administration."
Mark Zuckerberg and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative ended funding for FWD.us in 2025, formally ending a partnership that began in 2013 and involved hundreds of millions of dollars. CZI provided transitional "foundational" support as it pivoted away from public-policy advocacy and toward scientific research and AI infrastructure. The move reflects a broader divergence in tech philanthropy, with Zuckerberg channeling resources into Biohub labs, GPUs, and compute power while other philanthropists like MacKenzie Scott direct large unrestricted grants to equity- and DEI-focused institutions. The timing aligns with Zuckerberg's political shift and Meta's relaxed content rules, signaling a strategic realignment of philanthropic priorities.
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