He has been criticized for the fact that the research was funded by Synthetic Genomics, a company that he cofounded, which will hold the intellectual property rights resulting from the research – and has already filed for 13 patents related to it. But the work has taken 20 scientists a decade to complete, at an estimated cost of $40 million, and commercial investors are an obvious source for such funds.
在更加实用的层面上，温特声称该小组已经制造出了“一套非常强大的工具”来重新设计生命。不过外界对他也有诸多批评，因为资助该小组的正是他参与创立的一家名为“人造基因”的公司，而且还掌握着这项研究的知识产权——并已提交了13份相关专利。不过这个研究可是花了20位科学家10年时间才宣告完成，总费用估计高达4000万美元，因此很显然只有商业投资者才是最主要的资金来源。