In 2018, trading $40 million in capital, Alameda Research had generated $30 million in profits. Their effective altruist investors took half, leaving behind $15 million. Five million of that was lost to payroll and severance for the departing crowd; another $5 million was lost to expenses. On the remaining $5 million they’d paid taxes, and so, after all was said and done, they’d donated to effective altruist causes just $1.5 million. It wasn’t anything like enough, in Sam’s view. “We needed to get a lot more capital, or way cheaper capital, or make much higher returns,”
