OpenAI Foundation Invests $60 Million to Bring AI Weather and Crop Disease Forecasts to 100 Million Farmers

11 September 2026, New Delhi: A $60 million investment by the OpenAI Foundation is set to expand access to AI-powered weather and crop disease forecasting for 100 million smallholder farmers across South and Southeast Asia and East Africa over the next three years.

The initiative aims to provide farmers with more localized and actionable information to help them make critical decisions around planting, harvesting, fertilization and crop protection, as increasingly volatile weather patterns raise risks to agricultural productivity and incomes.

Smallholder farms produce roughly a third of the world’s food, while weather-related shocks can cause significant crop and income losses. The initiative notes that inaccurate predictions around rainfall and monsoon timing can lead farmers to plant too early or expose harvested crops to damaging rainfall.

AI to make localized forecasts more accessible

The initiative builds on advances in artificial intelligence that can generate weather forecasts with accuracy comparable to, or in some cases exceeding, traditional forecasting models while requiring significantly less computing power.

This could allow national meteorological agencies and other institutions in low- and middle-income countries to produce forecasts tailored to agricultural needs at a larger scale and lower cost.

The planned forecasting services will cover areas including monsoon onset and cessation, harvest-related rainfall, medium-range precipitation and extreme heat. Alongside weather forecasting, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) will develop AI-enabled wheat pathogen forecasting using NASA Earth-observation data to identify potential disease outbreaks earlier.

Forecasts delivered through farmer-focused channels

The $60 million portfolio brings together six organizations: the University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, Precision Development, AIM for Scale, Digital Green and CIMMYT.

The University of Chicago and UC Berkeley will work with national meteorological agencies to tailor and operationalize AI weather models. Precision Development will translate forecasts into practical agricultural advice and deliver the information through trusted channels, while Digital Green will integrate improved forecasts into its FarmerChat agricultural advisory platform, which is used by more than 2.1 million farmers.

Forecasts and advisories are expected to reach farmers through voice services, SMS, chatbots and other mobile-based channels, including in local languages. Farmers will also be able to provide feedback on actual weather conditions and the usefulness of the advice, helping improve forecasting and delivery systems.

The initiative is also backed by evidence from randomized trials indicating that timely weather information can influence farmers’ planting, spending and investment decisions, with potential to increase incomes and reduce crop losses.

Focus on long-term agricultural infrastructure

Beyond delivering forecasts, the initiative aims to establish systems that can continue beyond the initial investment.

AIM for Scale will work with governments and development banks to develop partnerships and financing models to sustain the services and expand them to additional countries. The longer-term objective is for national meteorological and agricultural institutions to operate the services, with governments and development banks supporting continued delivery.

The initiative will also focus on local evaluation, independent benchmarking and farmer feedback to assess how forecasting systems perform across different countries, weather conditions and crops.

The OpenAI Foundation said the broader objective is to apply AI to essential services where improved access to information and public-interest infrastructure can generate wider social and economic benefits.

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