Reuters: FTX philanthropy unit invested more than $13 million in universities before closing, some academics fear being ordered to return grants

According to Reuters, the closure of FTX’s philanthropic arm and the FTX Future Fund left academics and researchers who received funding early on without the promised money, while other researchers feared being ordered to return their grants. The charity has pledged to donate $1 billion to research scholars at prestigious universities by 2022, and doctoral student Korbinian Kettnaker said he was forced to abandon his studies in the philosophy of computer science at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom after his funding from FTX fell through. According to an archived snapshot of its now-deleted website, the fund had spent $132 million in 262 grants and investments as of June 2022, and further calculations based on those announcements show that university-affiliated research programs have received more than $13 million.