Laura
Will VincentYikes. @ThePSF has to pause grants cause running out of money, while AI companies built almost entirely on Python and open source raise billions every few months. 
https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-psf-has-paused-our-grants-program.html
Jeff Triplett@wsvincent @ThePSF Sure, those are all things, but having more grant requests awarded than the PSF had in their 2025 grant budget feels like a good problem to have. That's also different than the PSF running out of money.
I think they should be more transparent about the foundation's overall expense and revenue numbers, as showing assets is almost meaningless without them.
Dave Peck@webology @wsvincent As a former director, curious what you’d like to see broken out. Don’t the annual reports and 990s cover a lot of ground?
@davepeck @wsvincent they do, but that's two years removed from being useful.
If I have a complaint (it's too busy a morning for me to really read and digest it), it is that they paint a picture that makes it easy for people to read that the PSF is running out of money.
Knowing if their revenue is up or down for the year, plus knowing that expenses are up, helps keep all three in context.
@davepeck @wsvincent Case in point: when I was the Treasurer, we secured several grants for a few years of funding for some developer-in-residence positions. That might balloon revenue for a year and show expense for several years, even though it's not tied to revenue. Overall, the foundation is healthier than not having the position, even if it shows up as an expense and drops our overall assets.
@davepeck @wsvincent Without more context, it's too easy for people to create their own narratives, which often makes it harder to fundraise. Most of the time, when you talk to these companies, it's rare that they aren't funding for the sake of not funding. (that's also a legit issue)
Happy to have that chat sometime, but I suspect the PSF has grown and that leads to more expense, but that has no impact on Grants having a historically large number of requests this year.
@webology @wsvincent That’s useful perspective — thanks!
Morten@webology @wsvincent @ThePSF I think Will's angle is very fair though. According to this in the Guardian Microsoft, AWS, Meta, Alphabet will spend $400 billion on AI over the next year.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/04/tech-trillion-dollars-palantir-techscape
@drgroftehauge @wsvincent @ThePSF Sure, I don't disagree that they could give more. Several of the companies you are referencing are already at the PSF's highest plan levels (not all are and they should all be) and at least one pays towards the developer-in-residence program, which exceeds their overall plan. I'm not defending them btw, but I have said for year the PSF should 2x or 4x their plans and I stand by that.
@drgroftehauge @wsvincent @ThePSF That's part of the issue, too, and while I thought the blog post fell flat for other reasons that are harder to fit into a Mastodon post.
See my other thread if you are curious about why I'd like to have better accountability and transparency that extends beyond blaming this on AI companies, whom we have most likely never asked for money to give us money. They can't read our minds and we struggle to know who to even ask at those companies.
Erik H. Beck@wsvincent Not fair!
lord pthenq1