THE SIMONS FOUNDATION, INC.

What THE SIMONS FOUNDATION, INC. does

The Simons Foundation is a private philanthropy founded in 1975 by mathematician and investor Jim Simons, headquartered in New York City, and governed under chair Marilyn Hawrys Simons with David Spergel serving as President since 2021. Its mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences. It does this primarily as a grantmaker and operator of in-house research, not as a seller of products or services. Funding flows through endowment returns, and program areas span Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, SFARI (autism), Neuroscience, Simons Collaborations, the Flatiron Institute, Science/Society/Culture, and Multidisciplinary Programs.

The foundation's core technical engine is the Flatiron Institute, which it operates as a wholly-owned research division running five computational centers: the Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA), Center for Computational Biology (CCB), Center for Computational Mathematics (CCM), Center for Computational Neuroscience (CCN), and Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ). These centers produce large-scale simulation suites (Quijote, CAMELS), the Santa Cruz Semi-Analytic Model, and AI/ML tools including SimBIG for cosmological parameter estimation and Denario, an autonomous AI research companion. The foundation runs the Simons Award Manager (SAM) as its grantmaking infrastructure, publishes Quanta Magazine and The Transmitter as science communication channels, and supports awards and travel grants tied to events such as ICM 2026 and the Fields Medals.

The foundation is funded by the Simons family endowment and supplements private philanthropy with international collaboration networks. Its customers, in operational terms, are the global academic research community — individual researchers, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and research institutions — rather than paying enterprises. Pricing is not applicable because the foundation does not sell products or services; instead it distributes grant funding, fellowships, in-house research output, and public-facing science journalism. Distribution channels include direct grant programs, the five Flatiron research centers, Simons Collaborations across multiple institutions, public lectures, ICM-affiliated programming, and media properties such as Quanta.

Name

THE SIMONS FOUNDATION, INC.

Legal name

Simons Foundation

Website

https://simonsfoundation.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1975

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Simons Foundation is a private philanthropy founded in 1975 by Jim Simons that advances basic science and mathematics through grantmaking, the Flatiron Institute's five computational research centers, the SFARI autism initiative, and science publications such as Quanta Magazine.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Research Philanthropy

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813), Voluntary Health Organizations (813212), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172)

akta.pro primary industry

Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI), Health & Medical Research Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAL), Education Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAK), Scholarship & Fellowship Foundations and Trusts (EDADAHAC)

Keywords

• Scientific research philanthropy
• Computational research institute
• Mathematics research grants
• Autism research funding
• Science journalism publication

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Philanthropic Endowment: The Simons Foundation is funded primarily through the endowment of Jim Simons and Marilyn Simons, using investment returns to fund grants and research operations.
2. Research Grants and Funding: The foundation provides grant funding to researchers, institutions, and collaborations in mathematics, physical sciences, life sciences, autism research, and neuroscience.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

The Simons Foundation is a private philanthropy that advances research in mathematics and the basic sciences by providing grants, fellowships, and collaborative research funding to academic researchers and institutions. It also operates the Flatiron Institute, which conducts computational scientific research across five centers covering astrophysics, biology, mathematics, neuroscience, and quantum physics, and it publishes science journalism through Quanta Magazine and The Transmitter.

Product overview

The Simons Foundation is a private philanthropy advancing research in mathematics and basic sciences through grantmaking and the Flatiron Institute. The Flatiron Institute is a division conducting computational research through five centers (Computational Astrophysics, Computational Biology, Computational Mathematics, Computational Neuroscience, and Computational Quantum Physics), plus the Scientific Computing Core. These centers develop AI/ML tools including SimBIG for cosmological analysis, the Quijote and CAMELS simulation suites, and the Denario autonomous AI research companion. The foundation also operates SFARI for autism research, Quanta Magazine for science journalism, and provides funding through programs like the Simons Society of Fellows. The overall portfolio is a platform of research divisions plus grantmaking programs, not a unified software product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Flatiron Institute: A division of the Simons Foundation that conducts computational research across astrophysics, biology, mathematics, neuroscience, and quantum physics
• SFARI

Products and services

• Flatiron Institute A division of the Simons Foundation that conducts computational research across five centers, developing software, simulations, and AI tools for scientific discovery in astrophysics, biology, mathematics, neuroscience, and quantum physics.
• SFARI (Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative) A program area dedicated to advancing understanding of autism spectrum disorders through research funding, grants, and scientific collaboration with the research community.
• Quanta Magazine

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 300 gravitational wave detections contributed to through research
• +8 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

18 partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• International Mathematical Union (IMU)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Partnership with IMU for ICM 2026 travel grants, providing support to 688 mathematicians from 76 developing countries to attend the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia
• Commission for Developing Countries (CDC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with CDC to support mathematicians from developing countries to attend ICM 2026
• American Mathematical Society (AMS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with AMS for ICM 2026, the first ICM in the United States since 1986
• Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain (SCGB)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch collaboration focused on neuroscience and neural circuits, part of the Simons Foundation's autism and neuroscience research initiatives
• Simons Collaboration on Learning the UniversecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration directed by Greg Bryan of Columbia University to understand and determine the evolution and initial conditions of the universe using observations via Bayesian forward modeling
• Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration focused on microbial oceanography and marine ecosystem research
• Simons Collaboration on Probabilistic Paths to Quantum Field TheorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration directed by Scott Sheffield at MIT bringing together experts in probability, analysis, and mathematical physics to develop probabilistic foundations for Euclidean QFT
• Simons Collaboration on New Structures in Low-Dimensional TopologycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration bringing together mathematicians and physicists to study three- and four-dimensional manifolds with applications to physics
• Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD StringscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration working on understanding quark confinement and Yang-Mills theory through string theory approaches, directed by Igor Klebanov at Princeton
• Simons Collaboration on Localization of WavescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration focused on wave localization phenomena in mathematical physics
• Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging BraincoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration exploring how the brain grows old, with funding for research awards, fellows, and conferences
• Simons Collaboration on Mott Multichannel (Simons Foundation)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of the Simons Collaborations in MPS focusing on condensed matter physics
• Simons ObservatorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on cosmic microwave background research, with CCA leading data reduction pipeline development
• NASA (James Webb Space Telescope, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership providing semi-analytic forecasts using JWST and Roman Space Telescope data for galaxy formation research
• Stony Brook University Simons Center for Geometry and PhysicscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity-based center supported by Simons Foundation for geometry and physics research
• University of Birmingham Institute of Gravitational Wave AstronomycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partnership with Will Farr, who holds joint position at University of Birmingham and Stony Brook University/CCA
• Lean Focused Research Organization (FRO)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLean FRO received $5 million gift from Simons Foundation International and related support from Simons Foundation for proof assistant software development
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V)coreTechnology or IntegrationCollaboration on galaxy formation research using SDSS-V panoptic spectroscopy data

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• John Templeton Foundation: The Templeton Foundation funds research at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology, with significant grants in cosmology, psychology, and mathematics. It is an emerging-style peer in basic science philanthropy with some overlap in MPS and mathematics, but a distinct mission framing.

Direct peers

• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: The Sloan Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation that supports basic scientific research in mathematics, physics, computer science, and economics, with fellowships and research programs. It is a direct peer: comparable focus on basic science, similar scale of grants, and direct overlap with MPS program areas.
• Kavli Foundation: The Kavli Foundation funds basic science research in astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience, and theoretical physics and operates endowed institutes at major universities. It is a direct peer in pure science philanthropy and shares the model of endowing research institutes to advance long-horizon scientific agendas.
• Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation: The Moore Foundation funds science, environmental conservation, and patient care improvement, with major commitments to fundamental research, including chemistry, physics, and data science. Comparable to the Simons Foundation in its emphasis on basic science grantmaking and investigator-driven research programs.
• Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation: The Beckman Foundation supports fundamental research in chemistry and the life sciences and funds instrumentation, young investigators, and centers. It is a direct peer in basic science philanthropy with a similar focus on early-career programs and instrumentation, though at a smaller scale.
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI): HHMI is a large private biomedical research organization that funds investigator scientists, runs its own research campus (Janelia), and awards grants in life sciences. It is the closest direct peer to the Simons Foundation in structure (private philanthropy + internal research) and in funding life and physical sciences, though HHMI is more heavily concentrated in biomedicine.
• Research Corporation for Science Advancement: Research Corporation for Science Advancement is one of the oldest U.S. science foundations, supporting early-career researchers in physics, chemistry, and astronomy through Cottrell Scholars and other award programs. It is a direct peer in the basic science grantmaking niche, though at a meaningfully smaller scale.

Broad incumbents

• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI): CZI is a large philanthropic organization that funds biomedical research, science education, and computational biology through its Science program and Bio Hub network. It is a broad incumbent peer with strong overlap in computational biology and neuroscience, and a comparable ambition to deploy computational tools for scientific discovery.
• Wellcome Trust: Wellcome is one of the world's largest research-focused charitable foundations, supporting discovery research, translational science, and public engagement in health. It is a broad incumbent peer given comparable scale, international footprint, and a research-centric funding model that overlaps with SFARI's neuroscience portfolio.
• Helmsley Charitable Trust: The Helmsley Charitable Trust is a large private foundation with significant programs in health, education, and conservation, including biomedical research funding. It is a broad incumbent peer given comparable scale and a portfolio that includes health research investments adjacent to SFARI's mission.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/SimonsFoundation
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-simons-foundation-inc.

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about THE SIMONS FOUNDATION, INC.