About David Siegel
As technology continues to upend all sectors, we have to ensure that emerging innovation is also being applied in the public interest to address society’s biggest challenges. We have a massive opportunity to leverage technology to shape a more resilient and just future.
David Siegel is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist whose career has been guided by a belief in technology’s potential to improve the world. He traces that conviction back to watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, a formative experience that opened his eyes to the limitless ways humans and computers might interact, and to what technology could eventually achieve.
Following a youth spent deconstructing, building, and teaching computational systems of all kinds, David studied computer science at Princeton University and later earned a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence at MIT. His doctoral research focused on human-machine interactions, including the development of one of the first human-like robotic hands.
David’s academic background has guided the development of Siegel’s inquiry-driven approach to grantmaking
Throughout his career, David has translated that curiosity into entrepreneurship. Following a series of early internet ventures, he co-founded Two Sigma in 2001 to bring a scientific framework to financial markets. By pairing rigorous human inquiry with advanced computing and artificial intelligence, the firm helped pioneer modern quantitative investing and today is one of the world’s leading investment management firms.
Today, David focuses his efforts on philanthropy. In 2011, he launched Siegel Family Endowment, a philanthropic foundation that supports leaders, researchers, and organizations working to better understand how technological change shapes society, and how society can shape technology in return. In 2024, he founded Open Athena, a nonprofit organization that bridges the gap between academic research and the AI frontier by equipping universities with elite AI and data engineering talent to enable groundbreaking discoveries at scale.
David also serves on the boards and advisory bodies of organizations across research, education, technology, and public service, including MIT, Cornell Tech, FIRST Robotics, Scratch Foundation, Khan Academy, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Advisory Committee.
Inspired by David’s experience as a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and researcher, Siegel Family Endowment approaches philanthropy with a spirit of inquiry, asking not only what technologies are emerging, but how they will reshape the systems, institutions, and opportunities that underpin everyday life. This question-driven orientation, rooted in David’s academic training and longstanding curiosity, has shaped the Endowment since its founding and continues to guide its work today, with a commitment to learning alongside grantees as we engage with a rapidly changing world.
In The News
Op-Eds & Interviews
David Siegel on the power of Open Source AI, Fortune
It’s not too late for social media to regulate itself
Ethics and Technology: A fireside chat with David Siegel
Siegel Family Endowment Chairman David Siegel sits down with Bloomberg’s Brad Stone at Sooner Than You Think in Brooklyn.