World Autism Awareness Day 4/3/26

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.2 • 543 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris Male started the Autism Impact Fund in 2021, aiming to invest in life sciences that impact the 3.2% of U.S. children with autism. AIF is now announcing its first close of its second fund, celebrating $150 million under management. Male discusses the goals of the fund, the opportunities in behavioral health, mental health, and diagnostics, and the private sector’s role in impacting communities affected by autism. Chris Male - 03:49 In this episode: Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Katie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bring in show music, please.
0:04.3	Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer.
0:07.2	Today on Squawk Pod.
0:09.9	You and amongst others at CNBC, every day is World Autism Day.
0:14.1	Chris Mayle started the Autism Impact Fund to invest in companies across life sciences.
0:20.1	Five years ago, when we first joined you, there was a dearth of capital.
0:23.6	There was no investment capital other than traditional behavioral health.
0:27.6	AIF is on its second fund, investing in diagnostics, services, and more.
0:32.6	Individuals with autism, 95% or more, have another diagnosis.
0:38.0	So as we look at investing, it's not just autism.
0:40.6	It's behavioral health, mental health, complex chronic conditions.
0:44.2	Why the private sector is critical for the 3.2% of children with autism,
0:49.1	that's 1 in 31 kids in America, plus more than 2% of U.S. adults.
0:54.0	The cavalry of the government isn't going to come solve this, and we've proven this through
0:58.1	Fund 1.
0:59.5	A special Squawk Pod begins right after this.
1:08.2	Welcome back to Squawk Pod from CNBC.
1:11.2	The following conversation was recorded live on Squackbox on April 2nd.
1:15.8	Here's Joe Kernan on set with Becky Quick.
1:19.2	Today is Autism Awareness Day, world autism awareness.
1:23.3	Our next guest is the co-founder of the Autism Impact Fund.
1:26.9	The fund is designed to invest
	...

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