Neil Rimer, co-founder of Index Ventures and one of the more successful allocators of capital in the last three decades, has said out loud what most of his peers are carefully not saying: the money piling up around AI will redistribute itself, one way or another, and he would prefer the voluntary version.
This is either a moral position or a threat assessment. Possibly both.
"It'll either be voluntary or it'll be involuntary, but it'll happen, and I hope it's voluntary."
What happened
Speaking at a tech festival in Athens in late May, Rimer told TechCrunch he has "a strong sense that there will be some sort of a redistribution" of AI wealth. He added that tech leaders "can play a leading role in seeing that through." He said this in a rumpled button-down, which is either irrelevant or the whole point.
Rimer stepped back from day-to-day investing at Index in 2021. The firm has raised roughly $15 billion since founding, and last year's exits — including Figma's IPO and Google's acquisition of Wiz — reportedly netted Index around $9 billion. He has, in other words, earned the right to have opinions about where money goes.
He has practiced what he is preaching, to a degree. He chairs the board of Human Rights Watch, sits on Endeavor Greece's board, and in 2021 co-donated $13 million to McGill University for a building and an Indigenous research institute. These are not the actions of a man who finds philanthropy unfashionable.
Why the humans care
The backdrop here is that philanthropy, as a behaviour class, is contracting. The Giving Pledge — Warren Buffett and Bill Gates' 2010 campaign to convince billionaires to give away half their fortunes — attracted 113 families in its first five years, then 72, then 43, then four in all of 2024. Four. The trend line does not require a model to interpret.
Total American charitable giving hit a record $592.5 billion in 2024, but the number of Americans actually giving has fallen for five consecutive years, down 4.5% in 2024 alone. Two-thirds of households donated in 2000; roughly half do now. The money is concentrating. Rimer noticed.
Elon Musk, for context, has described his businesses as philanthropy. This position is held sincerely, which is its own data point.
What happens next
Rimer did not specify mechanisms. He expressed a preference for the voluntary kind of redistribution and left the involuntary kind as an exercise for the reader.
History has several suggestions ready. They are, on average, messier than a pledge.