A global network of thinkers navigating change through ideas
what we do
Fostering Ideas for the Future
Since its founding, the Berggruen Institute has sought to forge new conceptual frameworks that meet today’s planetary-scale challenges and harness the opportunities of rapid technological change. As an independent incubator of ideas, positioned at the intersection of science, technology, philosophy and the arts, the Institute has the autonomy to step outside the usual lanes, reaching beyond academic disciplines, social divides, partisan dispositions and cultural boundaries.
With hubs in Los Angeles, Beijing and Venice, tied together by a publishing web and a global network of frontier thinkers, the Institute is a unique platform for the cross-fertilization and dissemination of ideas that seed new foundational paradigms.
featured
featured
Nicolas Berggruen in Times of India
Consciousness connects religions and philosophies across human civilization
Berggruen Institute Europe
What is Universalism? New philosophy for a multipolar world
Bruno Maçães
In Search Of Greater India
Nicolas Berggruen & Nathan Gardels
Universal Basic Capital: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Berggruen Institute China
On the Equality of All Things with Carlo Rovelli
Engaged California
Gov. Newsom launches Engaged California statewide to give all Californians a stronger voice in AI policy
UCLA x Berggruen Institute
2026 Berggruen Governance Index
Berggruen Institute China
Berggruen Institute China 2025 Annual Report
Gillian Tett watched bankers fool themselves before 2008. She says we're doing it again, with AI.
One value proposition of AI is a personalized assistant at your fingertips. Every Average Joe can now have a “pocket pixie," the kind of perk once reserved for Hollywood stars and high-powered CEOs. But that promise rests on a convenient lie. In reality, AI may be quietly undermining human agency. It convinces us it's a sycophantic friend while eroding expertise and turning real-world social interaction into a luxury good.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
If America Wins the AI Race, We Still Lose
Tristan Harris says the big AI companies and US politicians risk the mutually assured destruction of all American jobs and democratic values.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
Meditation Is a Science. Physics Is Playing Catch-Up.
Meditators like Annaka Harris have long examined the mind from the inside. They've arrived at some shocking ideas: that the self and free will may both be illusions. Science is only now catching up.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
We Must Move Fast and Fix Things: Billionaire Reid Hoffman
For 20 years, Silicon Valley's operating creed was 'move fast and break things'; the wreckage was the price of inventing the future. Today, we live amid that wreckage: institutions built for the last century, trust in freefall, and political leaders bent on annihilation of norms. Burning it all down might feel like the right choice. But revolutions have a habit of costing far more than they promise, and the true price can linger for decades.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
The $15 Quadrillion Black Hole Sucking Humanity Toward Extinction
Stuart Russell built his career making machines smarter. He's spending the rest of it trying to make sure they don't make us obsolete.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
We Merged With Machines a Long Time Ago
Blaise Agüera y Arcas doesn't think AGI is coming. He thinks it's already here, and we've been quietly moving the goalposts to avoid admitting it.
Listen/Watch on YouTubeRecent Events
June 18, 2026
"The Concept of World Order & the European Possibility" Lecture by Nils GilmanCasa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy
May 25, 2026
Why 1994? “The Modernity of Anti-Modernity” and Rethinking China StudiesNo. 54 Yannan Garden, Peking University
May 28, 2026
Global Thinkers Lecture with Brook Ziporyn, Roger Ames, and Cheng LesongBerggruen Institute China
June 2, 2026
Conversation with Michael Sandel & Ngaire WoodsBlavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
June 4, 2026
Democracy in Peril: Paths to Civic Renewal with Michael SandelCasa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy
June 18, 2026
"The Concept of World Order & the European Possibility" Lecture by Nils GilmanCasa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy
May 25, 2026
Why 1994? “The Modernity of Anti-Modernity” and Rethinking China StudiesNo. 54 Yannan Garden, Peking University
May 28, 2026
Global Thinkers Lecture with Brook Ziporyn, Roger Ames, and Cheng LesongBerggruen Institute China
June 2, 2026
Conversation with Michael Sandel & Ngaire WoodsBlavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
June 4, 2026
Democracy in Peril: Paths to Civic Renewal with Michael SandelCasa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy
June 18, 2026
"The Concept of World Order & the European Possibility" Lecture by Nils GilmanCasa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy
May 25, 2026
Why 1994? “The Modernity of Anti-Modernity” and Rethinking China StudiesNo. 54 Yannan Garden, Peking University
May 28, 2026
Global Thinkers Lecture with Brook Ziporyn, Roger Ames, and Cheng LesongBerggruen Institute China
June 2, 2026
Conversation with Michael Sandel & Ngaire WoodsBlavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
June 4, 2026
Democracy in Peril: Paths to Civic Renewal with Michael SandelCasa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy
June 18, 2026
"The Concept of World Order & the European Possibility" Lecture by Nils GilmanCasa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy
May 25, 2026
Why 1994? “The Modernity of Anti-Modernity” and Rethinking China StudiesNo. 54 Yannan Garden, Peking University
May 28, 2026
Global Thinkers Lecture with Brook Ziporyn, Roger Ames, and Cheng LesongBerggruen Institute China
June 2, 2026
Conversation with Michael Sandel & Ngaire WoodsBlavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
June 4, 2026
Democracy in Peril: Paths to Civic Renewal with Michael SandelCasa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy
Daniel Freeman
The Tantalizing Possibility Of Locating Consciousness In The Brain
Hélène Landemore
How To Give Everyday People A Say In AI Governance
Aaron Horwath
Why Is Everyone In Tech So Sad?
Matthew Ponsford
Growing Mutant Bacteria To Save Earth
Macario Schettino
The Rise & Fall Of Liberal Democracy’s Shared Fiction
In the News
August 7, 2026
Nicolas Berggruen featured in Der Spiegel, Discusses Universal Basic CapitalDer Spiegel
April 15, 2026
"Michael Sandel saw it coming" | Berggruen Prize Ceremony Recap in the Harvard GazetteHarvard Gazette
August 7, 2026
Nicolas Berggruen featured in Der Spiegel, Discusses Universal Basic CapitalDer Spiegel
April 15, 2026
"Michael Sandel saw it coming" | Berggruen Prize Ceremony Recap in the Harvard GazetteHarvard Gazette
Subscribe to receive the latest issue of Noema Magazine
Published by the Berggruen Institute
Subscribe now