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# Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
- URL: https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/chan-zuckerberg-initiative/
- Published: 1999-01-02T13:26:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-21T22:43:52.000Z
- Author: Liam Sturgess
- Tags: Profiles, #docs, #organization

The **Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI)** is an American philanthropic corporation led by [Facebook](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Facebook) founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

## History

In January 2017, CZI acquired a Toronto-based artificial intelligence company called Meta, which functioned as a search engine for scientific literature.[\[1\]](#fn1)[\[2\]](#fn2)

CZI was a founding sponsor of the [Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Vector-Institute-for-Artificial-Intelligence) at Toronto's [MaRS Discovery District](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/MaRS-Discovery-District) in March 2017.[\[3\]](#fn3)

### COVID-19

CZI provided funding to the [Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Johns-Hopkins-Center-for-Health-Security) to lead [CommuniVax](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/CommuniVax), a research project to increase uptake of [COVID-19 vaccines](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/COVID-19-vaccine) among Black, Latino and Hispanic Americans, co-sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation.[\[4\]](#fn4)[\[5\]](#fn5)

On October 28, 2021, CZI announced the sunset of Meta, with a proposed shutdown date of March 31, 2022.[\[6\]](#fn6) Also on October 28, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be changing its corporate name and branding to [Meta](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Meta-Platforms) in order to fully embrace the company's direction towards implementing the Metaverse.[\[7\]](#fn7)

CZI awarded a $200,000 grant to McMaster University to explore using “Metagenomic Next Generation Sequencing to Detect, Identify, and Characterize Pathogens.” The grant was co-administered by the [Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Bill-&-Melinda-Gates-Foundation) and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.[\[8\]](#fn8)

## Activities

CZI has provided notable funding to:

- [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Center-on-Budget-and-Policy-Priorities) (CBPP)[\[9\]](#fn9)
- [CommuniVax](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/CommuniVax)[\[5:1\]](#fn5)[\[4:1\]](#fn4)
- [Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Johns-Hopkins-Center-for-Health-Security)[\[5:2\]](#fn5)
- McMaster University[\[8:1\]](#fn8)
- [Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Vector-Institute-for-Artificial-Intelligence)[\[3:1\]](#fn3)
- [Wikimedia Foundation](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Wikimedia-Foundation)[\[10\]](#fn10)

## External links

- [Campfire Wiki](https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=chan%5Fzuckerberg%5Finitiative)
- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan%5FZuckerberg%5FInitiative)

---

1. Siu, A. (2017, January 25). *Chan Zuckerberg Initiative makes first buy, a Canadian artificial intelligence startup.* San Francisco Business Times. <http://archive.today/2023.07.05-230826/https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/01/25/chan-zuckerberg-initiative-meta-ai.html> [↩︎](#fnref1)
2. *Elizabeth Caley.* Creative Destruction Lab. Retrieved February 27, 2022, from <http://archive.today/2022.01.22-190753/https://www.creativedestructionlab.com/mentors/elizabeth-caley/> [↩︎](#fnref2)
3. Williams, K. (2017, March 30). *News release: New Artificial Intelligence Research Institute Launched in Toronto.* Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. <https://web.archive.org/web/20230705224908/https://vectorinstitute.ai/press-release-new-artificial-intelligence-research-institute-launched-in-toronto/> [↩︎](#fnref3) [↩︎](#fnref3:1)
4. *Home.* CommuniVax. Retrieved July 15, 2021, from <http://archive.today/2021.07.15-232217/https://www.communivax.org/> [↩︎](#fnref4) [↩︎](#fnref4:1)
5. *Research Projects.* Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Retrieved July 11, 2023, from <http://archive.today/2023.07.11-201712/https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/center-research-projects> [↩︎](#fnref5) [↩︎](#fnref5:1) [↩︎](#fnref5:2)
6. Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative. (2021, October 28). *Meta Transition.* Medium. <https://web.archive.org/web/20211217022923/https://cziscience.medium.com/meta-transition-5f66b1fae475> [↩︎](#fnref6)
7. Ortutay, B. (2021, October 28). *Facebook is changing its name to Meta to emphasise “metaverse” vision.* The Sydney Morning Herald. <http://archive.today/2022.02.27-203413/https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/facebook-is-changing-its-name-to-meta-to-emphasise-metaverse-vision-20211029-p5946l.html> [↩︎](#fnref7)
8. *Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Global Grand Challenges, Metagenomic Next Generation Sequencing to Detect, Identify, and Characterize Pathogens. Research & Innovation.* (2021, November 19). McMaster University. <http://archive.today/2021.12.01-210632/https://research.mcmaster.ca/funding/bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-global-grand-challenges-metagenomic-next-generation-sequencing-to-detect-identify-and-characterize-pathogens/> [↩︎](#fnref8) [↩︎](#fnref8:1)
9. *Honor Roll of Support - 2019.* (2019). Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. <https://web.archive.org/web/20220617124816/https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/honor-roll-2019.pdf> [↩︎](#fnref9)
10. *Donors.* Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved June 27, 2024, from [https://web.archive.org/web/20240627202914/https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/annualreport/2019-annual-report/donors/#section-5↩︎](https://web.archive.org/web/20240627202914/https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/annualreport/2019-annual-report/donors/#section-5%E2%86%A9%EF%B8%8E) [↩︎](#fnref10)