In 1990, the computer science department at MIT was rewarded a grant of $98 million from Microsoft for their invention of the Microsoft sound (you know, that annoying tune that plays when you start Windows 98). The money was promptly laundered and stowed away in a Swiss bank account, but MIT had no idea what to do with the money. In 1994 the theory of quantum economics reached its prime, and MIT realized that they had more disposable income than both Caltech and Cornell combined. They appropriated all the money to the Deep Green Project, and the effort began.