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Jeremy Renner is sitting in his Lake Tahoe kitchen in a black baseball cap and a somehow even darker tee, somberly recounting the details of the now-famed incident that left him clinging to life. On New Year\u2019s Day in 2023, Renner was nearly killed on his Nevada property when his 14,000-pound snowcat pinned him on an icy mountain. The \u201ctragic accident,\u201d as the Reno sheriff would then call it at the time, left the two-time Oscar nominee with over 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung, and a pierced liver that left him in critical but stable condition in intensive care following surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 54-year-old, probably most famous for playing the Marvel superhero Hawkeye in eight-different appearances, was frank when discussing the incident: if it weren\u2019t for the people rushing to help him that fateful New Year\u2019s Day morning, he may very well have succumbed to his blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries. All paths to his home were blocked (he was initially trying to dig out a family member), and the cascade of emergency responders had to navigate the brutal terrain to keep him alive, from fire departments, paramedics, and even a Care Flight helicopter, 150 people in total, by Renner\u2019s own count. He spent months recovering, asking a single question: what could he do for the people who saved him?<\/p>\n
Renner said he was lucky to have some 150 people by his count get him to safety after his 14,000 pound snowcat pinned him down on New Year\u2019s Day in 2023.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of RapidSOS<\/p>\n
The answer, it turns out, is RapidSOS.<\/p>\n
Renner has become a partner and investor in the New York-based public safety AI company. It\u2019s his first major public safety partnership since the accident, but he told Fortune it\u2019s not a celebrity endorsement. He described it as a personal mission rooted in the debt he can never fully repay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s 150 people that are responsible for me not dying,\u201d Renner told Fortune in an exclusive interview ahead of the announcement. \u201cI\u2019ll always be in debt to them and so thankful for my life. And that\u2019s why I\u2019m a part of this company, because I think it\u2019ll help them do their job more efficiently, better, and that just trickles down into the person that they\u2019re serving in an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremy Renner and RapidSOS Founder and CEO Michael Martin both spoke with 911 operators across the country to solve for how fragmented the shared information was between emergency services. <\/p>\n
Courtesy of RapidSOS<\/p>\n
A personal reckoning<\/p>\n
The path from near-death experience to tech investor was not a straight line. After recovering, Renner began spending time with the first responders who had come to his aid, from the 911 operator who stayed on the line for 20 minutes not knowing if he would survive, to the Care Flight pilot and the paramedics who stabilized him in sub-zero conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI became a client, or a patient, to the emergency services and got a deeper dive into what they do,\u201d Renner said. \u201cThe thousands of experiences that they have that are just as harrowing [as his incident]. Every moment, every day. Their job is pretty crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he was struck by how fragmented information-sharing was during his own rescue, a gap he says could cost lives. \u201cNo information is passed back and forth anymore in these services where maybe information she does have could be helpful to anybody,\u201d Renner said of the 911 operator who worked his case. \u201cI think all that information kind of needs to be shared, and data is the most important, and when the time is ticking.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Renner later learned that many of the same 911 agencies that responded to his emergency had begun adopting RapidSOS technology, the investment decision became clear.<\/p>\n
Renner spent the years the have followed his incident speaking with the first responders who got him to safety. <\/p>\n
Courtesy of RapidSOS<\/p>\n
Enter RapidSOS<\/p>\n
RapidSOS was founded in 2012 by CEO Michael Martin, who built the company out of MIT after a personal brush with the inadequacy of 911 infrastructure. Graduating college and moving to the Big Apple, Martin was walking home late one night when he was mugged and found himself unable to get help easily. That led him down a rabbithole of how much information actually gets shared, and so he began cold-calling 911 centers, discovering a national system largely unchanged since the 1960s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned it was a national infrastructure challenge,\u201d Martin told Fortune. \u201cThere was no federal funding, no federal oversight. Every small town in America was supposed to figure this stuff out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, RapidSOS operates what Martin describes as the world\u2019s largest intelligent safety network, one that connects more than 23,500 federal, state, and local agencies with real-time data from smartphones, wearable devices, 25 million connected cars, 450,000 connected buildings, and more than 100 million cameras. Half a million emergencies traverse its infrastructure daily.<\/p>\n
Renner spoke with Reno Dispatcher Sara Colacurcio among other first responders to see what information gets conveyed with a 911 call is made.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of RapidSOS<\/p>\n
Martin described himself as a \u201cdata nerd,\u201d as he showed Fortune the data that a dispatcher receives during the average 911 call, containing the location and a brief overview of the incident. In comparison, Martin showed the first transatlantic telegram sent between Queen Victoria and President Buchanan in 1858, a 98-word message. \u201cThis data payload is 512 bytes,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThat was more data than 911 receives today in the middle of a life and death emergency. It\u2019s comical to think about until you\u2019re reminded of the scale and magnitude of this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
RapidSOS replaces that lack of data with real-time intelligence that\u2019s on our very bodies or around us at all times: crash detection from wearables, live video from connected cameras, precise GPS coordinates, health profiles from the Red Cross and American Heart Association, and AI-driven hazmat identification, extremely important for recent incidents like the East Palestine train derailment. The goal is not to replace the human dispatcher but to amplify them, Martin said. \u201cThe humans of 911 are just heroes in our community,\u201d Martin said, \u201cand we had to figure out how we could support them, to harness all this technology to be like their assistant or their co-pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s already working<\/p>\n
Renner and Martin both exemplified RapidSOS tech for its collaborative abilities to communicate with different agencies and first responders.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of RapidSOS<\/p>\n
The impact of the platform has been documented in a handful of high-profile saves that illustrate what Martin is building. In Edwardsburg, Michigan, a truck veered off a rural road and burst into flames with the driver unconscious and alone inside. RapidSOS transmitted an automatic crash alert from the driver\u2019s wearable device directly to Cass County Dispatch. In 13 seconds, dispatchers verified the incident and sent help. First responders pulled the driver from the burning wreckage before it was fully engulfed.<\/p>\n
In Feb. 2025, a hiker became severely hypothermic near the summit of Vermont\u2019s Mount Equinox during a winter storm, incapacitated with a dying phone battery. RapidSOS provided Manchester Dispatch with high-accuracy GPS coordinates that put rescuers within feet of the victim in sub-zero conditions, enabling a grueling multi-agency carry-down operation that saved the hiker\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
These are exactly the scenarios Renner says drove his investment. They weren\u2019t just cases like his own, where 150 people were available to respond, but for the lone biker who crashes in the Rockies with no one around for miles.<\/p>\n
Many of Renner\u2019s friends are first responders, he said, and now RapidSOS allows him to truly talk in depth about the issues they face with navigating critical emergency situations.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of RapidSOS<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what is really important,\u201d Renner said. \u201cYou can take your phone, satellite stuff, all these things that can seem bad, like we\u2019re being tracked, but they\u2019re actually really quite important and necessary for information to save your life, especially in remote areas. This is why I\u2019m here, part of the company: to let people know there\u2019s information out there that\u2019s already helping you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renner was pretty candid that he\u2019s not a natural AI user\u2014in fact, he expressed his frustration with AI-generated deepfakes of him being used to defraud donors to his nonprofit, the Renner Foundation, which supports veteran services and disadvantaged youth. \u201cPeople impersonate me, and it looks great,\u201d Renner told Fortune. \u201cAnd they\u2019re siphoning money from people who want to help kids,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no bed for you in a dark place.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he draws a sharp line between AI that exploits and AI that protects. \u201cI personally hate AI, but I\u2019m an actor,\u201d Renner said with a smile. \u201cWhen AI is used as a tool, especially a tool for good like RapidSOS does, this is the most powerful, most magnificent tool. AI and algorithms are used to sell you ads, to sell you things, so they want your money. This is not that. This is: we want AI used to save time, to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renner said that\u2019s exactly why he does see the positive attributes of AI. \u201cWhat\u2019s my blood type? He\u2019s going to die of hypothermia more than he\u2019s going to die of his eyeballs duct-taped inside his head,\u201d Renner said, recalling his own rescue. \u201cAll his information\u2014information, data\u2014in these kinds of situations, it\u2019s so important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In his spare time, Renner purchases and refurbishes old station equipment and donates it to volunteer firehouses across the country.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of RapidSOS<\/p>\n
Working together with someone who\u2019s lived it<\/p>\n
Martin says working with Renner was a smart move because he not only has firsthand experience of 911 emergency response, but also is the embodiment of someone working with first responders.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has this whole effort now where he\u2019s buying used and retired fire equipment, refurbishing it, and donating it to volunteer agencies,\u201d Martin said. \u201cWorking with someone who is so connected to the mission and the purpose of the incredible work of first responders, it\u2019s just been an amazing partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renner has been spending time with first responders at events with RapidSOS, and describes his commitment as long-term. \u201cMy personal relations with people in emergency services can now be talked about as a pathway with this company, where they use AI as a tool to help our helpers,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been involved in emergency services for a very long time. I love them.\u00a0 Some of my best friends are firefighters. Being involved in the community is something I\u2019ve always wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renner said the opportunity to partner with RapidSOS has allowed him to talk with his friends in a deeper way. \u201cIf RapidSOS hadn\u2019t come around, I\u2019d still just be having private conversations with people in emergency services. Now I can really talk about it, because there\u2019s a real pathway for them to be helped.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTime is so key, man,\u201d Renner said. \u201cInformation is so key to our survival when it\u2019s a life and death situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Exclusive #Jeremy #Renner #betting #tech #saved #life #faster<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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