Tech billionaires have pledged as much as €860 million ($1 billion) to help fund CERN’s Future Circular Collider, the next-generation particle collider and the successor to the Large Hadron Collider, according to a new press release from the Switzerland-based research institute. It’s the first time in CERN’s history that it will accept money from private donors.
Donors include the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, started by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, which includes Google co-founder Sergey Brin and 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki as founding members. Xavier Niel, the French tech billionaire, and John Elkann, the chairperson of Ferrari, have also pledged money to the project.
The Future Circular Collider is a proposed 56-mile-long (91-kilometer) particle collider that CERN hopes will allow scientists to address important questions in particle physics. The Large Hadron Collider has been vital for advancements in particle physics over the past two decades, most famously the observation of the Higgs boson in 2012.
CERN says the Future Circular Collider wouldn’t succeed the Large Hadron Collider until the mid-2040s, when the first phase of construction would be complete. The second phase likely wouldn’t be finished until the 2070s. The first phase alone is expected to cost roughly $17 billion in total.
“It’s the first time in history that private donors wish to partner with CERN to build an extraordinary research instrument that will allow humanity to take major steps forward in our understanding of fundamental physics and the Universe,” CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti said in a statement published online.
“I am profoundly grateful to them for their generosity, vision, and unwavering commitment to knowledge and exploration. Their support is essential to the prospective realisation of the FCC and to enabling future generations of scientists to push the frontiers of scientific discovery and technology.”
Eric Schmidt, who was executive chairman of Alphabet until 2017 and is now CEO of Relativity Space, released a statement about the donation on Thursday, with an eye on the future potential of a new particle collider.
“The Future Circular Collider is an instrument that could push the boundaries of human knowledge and deepen our understanding of the fundamental laws of the Universe,” said Eric Schmidt.
“Beyond the science, the technologies emerging from this project could benefit society in profound ways, from medicine to computing to sustainable energy, while training a new generation of innovators and problem-solvers. Wendy and I are inspired by the ambition of this project and by what it could mean for the future of humanity.”
CERN’s member states have until 2028 to approve the Future Circular Collider.
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