The Cognitive Revolution Sep 25, 2026 1h 50m · 87m saved
With Mike McCormick, Founder and CEO of Halcyon, a nonprofit grant maker and venture fund that helps founders launch AI safety, cybersecurity and biosecurity organizations
Halcyon has helped launch about 30 AI safety, cybersecurity and biosecurity organizations in three years, and those organizations have raised about half a billion dollars between them.
Most of the debate about AI safety is about ideas and money. Mike McCormick said neither is what the field lacks. What it lacks is experienced founders, and he worries about a coming moment when the money arrives with too few good organizations to receive it.
"And I'm fearful of this near future moment where there's this mountain of billions and billions of dollars and not all that many great things to fund."
Mike McCormick, founder and CEO of Halcyon, on The Cognitive Revolution, made the first two grants Halcyon ever gave to the future founders of Goodfire, an interpretability company that has since raised money at a valuation above $1B. Before Halcyon he was a partner at a billion-dollar venture capital firm.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 110 minutes of audio, 23 minutes of reading.
Here are the 19 insights that matter.
Key Takeaways
Halcyon's first two grants paid the rent for the founders of Goodfire, now an interpretability company valued above $1B
A $300M stockpile of protective equipment could keep 50 million people at work in a pandemic, McCormick said
Any US-China or lab agreement to slow AI is "impotent" without tools to verify it
Halcyon has backed the first companies using zero-knowledge proofs to check which model is running
Most AI safety fields have single-digit numbers of serious organizations, and he said they need 100x more
Talent, not money, is the bottleneck, and lab IPOs could release more money than there are projects to fund
Four boxes for every investment, and the founder's motive matters most
No governance structure is "a silver bullet", he said, including Anthropic's board
None of the risks he cares about require AI to be conscious
The AI security market will be worth tens of billions, and some Halcyon companies have already raised at many times its entry price
AI safety groups should hire more through recruiting firms and worry less about mission fit for roles like CFO
1. A Grant Maker and a VC Fund
McCormick opened by describing how Halcyon is built. It gives nonprofit grants and makes venture investments, and he said the two arms serve one mission.
Halcyon is half nonprofit and half venture fund
"So, we are part nonprofit and grant-making organization and then we are part venture capital fund." — Mike McCormick
About 30 organizations in three years
"And so in three years we've launched like 30 new things. And those things have collectively raised like a half a billion dollars in funding." — Mike McCormick
Some of that money is philanthropic and some is venture capital, he said. Its mission is to find leaders and founders and help them start AI safety, cybersecurity and biosecurity organizations.
