METR claims independence from frontier labs, but thread ties its donors to Anthropic backers
basedjensen · x · 2026-09-17
A viral thread audits METR's claim that it "doesn't accept money from frontier AI companies": its $4.5M spinoff from ARC came with backing from Jaan Tallinn's Survival and Flourishing Fund ($5-6M), Dustin Moskovitz ($1.5M+), and an undisclosed donation from Eric Schmidt — all Anthropic Series A investors or EA funders. Unnamed Jane Street individuals (the firm bought 3.3M Anthropic shares from FTX in 2024) also donated, and The Audacious Project committed $17M with funders including the Gates Foundation, which struck a $200M partnership with Anthropic in May. The thread questions the safety-eval org's independence.
Related event: METR's $71M Six-Month Funding Surge Draws Transparency Scrutiny(9 posts)→
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