Tarbell launches $10 million Institutional Grants program to expand AI journalism
September 22, 2026 – Today the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism announces the launch of its new $10M Institutional Grants program that will fund newsrooms, media ventures and series focused on AI. It launches with two media outlets already on board: NPR and Machine Gods.
Since its founding in 2022, Tarbell has supported rigorous and independent AI journalism by placing early to mid-career journalists inside major newsrooms via its fellowship program. In 2024, we doubled down on our commitment through offering reporting grants of $1,000 to $20,000 for individual stories about AI. To date Tarbell has awarded around $400,000 in these reporting grants.
Now, as the pace of AI development has accelerated dramatically, so have the stakes. Tarbell is meeting the moment by increasing the scale of its support for independent journalism with this new institutional grants program. Grants via the new program will go towards funding everything from new reporting teams, investigative units and verticals at existing outlets to helping establish entirely new media ventures and series. Tarbell aims to distribute at least $10M in funding by the end of 2027 via this program to support ambitious, independent reporting on AI.
The first two grantees under this program are NPR’s Power and Influence team and Machine Gods. The informed, high quality coverage they produce helps people grapple with AI and its consequences – the kind of reporting that we believe this transformational moment needs.
- NPR’s Power and Influence team (LINK TK) reports on how AI intersects with politics, money, and power across radio, podcasts, and digital platforms. They have received a grant of $250,000 to help expand its coverage. Tarbell’s funding is distributed as a $150k fixed grant and $100k as a 1:1 match on all new philanthropic support for the Power and Influence team before 31 March 2027.
- Machine Gods (LINK TK) is a new video-first show from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose, the creators of the hugely successful New York Times podcast Hard Fork, and two of the most recognized names in AI journalism today. They are launching Machine Gods to bring scrutiny of frontier AI companies to a large audience on YouTube. Tarbell is proud to support their coming launch with a grant of $480,000.
How the Institutional Grants program works
Tarbell’s grantmaking team is working to identify the journalistic endeavors best placed to close the gaps in AI coverage. We expect to fund a mix of institutions: from established outlets that need resources to go deeper on the AI beat, to new media ventures that can broaden and deepen the AI journalism ecosystem as a whole. Priority coverage areas include:
- Accountability reporting on frontier AI companies
- Investigations into lobbying and campaign financing
- AI policy coverage in the US and other priority jurisdictions such as the UK and the EU
- Incident reporting
- Foundational explainers and analysis
- Newman Family Charitable Fund (2025)
- AI’s transformative potential
- Robert and Virginia Shiller Foundation (2023, 2024)
- AI developments in China
“When evaluating grant opportunities, we look to support journalism that has a positive impact on the development and deployment of advanced AI. This includes reporting on AI that helps society navigate major societal disruptions, hold the most powerful actors to account and support collective sensemaking,” said Vincent Manancourt, Tarbell Program Director, Grants.
Grants will support organisations, teams and series, with editorial decisions remaining entirely with the recipient newsroom. Editorial independence is core to Tarbell’s mission, and our grantees maintain complete autonomy over their reporting. Read Tarbell’s full editorial independence policy here.
“The headlines of the past few weeks have underlined how rapidly AI is developing and how much is at stake,” said Cillian Crosson, Executive Director of the Tarbell Center. “Too often, reporters are not afforded the time and resources needed to delve deep into the stories and issues that matter, while newsrooms come under increasing pressures to do more with less. Our new institutional grants program will help news teams build the capacity to do that work, advancing Tarbell’s mission to help society navigate the development and deployment of advanced AI.”
If you want to apply for funding under the program, please click here. We will evaluate grant opportunities on a rolling basis. We will not be able to evaluate every application that we receive and will only conduct a formal evaluation for proposals we are very likely to fund. If you’re a journalist or outlet interested in learning more, please contact grants@tarbellcenter.org.
You can read more about Tarbell’s grants programs here.
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About Tarbell
The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports journalism helping society navigate advanced AI, through the Tarbell Fellowship, reporting grants, institutional grants, and Transformer. Newsrooms interested in institutional grants, and funders interested in the match, can find details at [link].