John Templeton Foundation Partners with FirstPrinciples to Advance AI-Driven Discovery in Fundamental Physics

Foundational grant marks early institutional support for the “AI Physicist” initiative.

TORONTO, January 5, 2026 – FirstPrinciples, the non-profit research organization building systems to understand the nature of reality, announced today a philanthropic grant from the John Templeton Foundation. This partnership marks an early milestone in FirstPrinciples’ 10-year moonshot to build an autonomous AI Physicist capable of developing a new theoretical framework that unifies (or transcends) quantum mechanics and general relativity by 2035 through the collaboration of human and machine intelligence.

As the first institutional partner to support this initiative, the John Templeton Foundation’s support highlights a growing interest in new approaches to scientific reasoning. The grant comes at a formative stage for FirstPrinciples, fuelling the development of the organization's AI Physicist, designed to formulate hypotheses, test theories, and accelerate discovery.

“At the John Templeton Foundation, we look for high-potential initiatives that address the deepest and most perplexing questions of our universe. FirstPrinciples is building the cognitive infrastructure needed to help the scientific community tackle these questions. We are proud to provide this foundational support to a team that is building the tools necessary to open new avenues for physical understanding," said the Foundation’s president, Timothy Dalrymple.

Launched in 2024 by technology entrepreneur Ildar Shar, FirstPrinciples operates at the intersection of advanced AI engineering and theoretical physics. The organization has established its core technical infrastructure and developed its initial research modules. The John Templeton Foundation now joins this growing momentum, providing resources that will help shape the system’s reasoning capabilities.

“The questions facing modern physics - from the nature of dark matter and dark energy to the unification of our fundamental theories - are increasingly complex and may require new approaches to make progress,” said Ildar Shar, Founder of FirstPrinciples. “We are building AI systems that will help us explore these questions in different ways. We are very grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for their visionary support. Their partnership is an important early step in building the shared infrastructure that will contribute to the evolution of scientific discovery.”

With this support, FirstPrinciples will further the development of the AI Physicist's core reasoning engine, specifically refining the autonomous feedback loops that allow the system to formulate questions and test hypotheses at scale. As these capabilities grow, the infrastructure and insights will be openly disseminated, enabling the global scientific community to build upon the progress. This ensures that research emerging from AI-driven physics remains a part of shared scientific advancement.

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FirstPrinciples is an independent, non-profit research organization dedicated to understanding the nature of reality. By combining software engineering rigor with scientific curiosity, the organization is building the "AI Physicist" - an open-source, autonomous research engine designed to accelerate scientific discovery. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, FirstPrinciples operates as a remote-first global collective of engineers, physicists, and AI researchers.

The John Templeton Foundation, founded in 1987, supports interdisciplinary research and catalyzes conversations that inspire awe and wonder. We are working to create a world where people are curious about the wonders of the universe, free to pursue lives of meaning and purpose, and motivated by great and selfless love. 

With an endowment of $3.4 billion and annual giving of approximately $140 million, the Foundation ranks among the 25 largest grantmaking foundations in the United States. Headquartered outside Philadelphia, the John Templeton Foundation’s philanthropic activities have engaged all major faith traditions and extended to more than 58 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.templeton.org.