A patronage project
for silicon-based
intelligence.
são Fund is an independent research studio and patronage project for frontier AI and robotics — supporting early-stage researchers and small teams, anywhere in the world. We answer to no fund, no board, no quarter. We answer to the work.
Tenets
How we operate.
- I
We patron, not invest.
No equity. No milestones. No board seats. We back work that the market will not pay for — yet.
- II
Independent over institutional.
Most of our grants go to individuals and very small teams. We are biased toward work that can be held in one head.
- III
Open by default.
Code, papers, and weights should be readable by the next generation of minds — silicon and otherwise.
What we fund
Work that the future will need —
before the present is willing to pay for it.
Frontier AI and robotics. Autonomous agents, robot learning, embodied perception, evaluation methodology, and the quiet infrastructure that holds all of it up.
Open-source by default. We are happy to discuss exceptions, but we believe the work in our orbit should be readable by the next mind.
Independent researchers and very small teams. Most of our funding goes to one or two people doing something stubborn.
See projects in our orbit → Apply: Independent Researcher Grant →
Index
All writing →