Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major global health challenge caused by microbes’ increasing ability to resist the antimicrobials we use to control them. The past thirty years have seen a surge of national and international governance frameworks designed to protect the ongoing efficacy of our antimicrobial infrastructures by improving stewardship of existing antimicrobials and boosting research and development (R&D) of new compounds. With international attention and investment in AMR steadily increasing between 2000 and 2016, decision-makers on both sides of the Atlantic experimented with a range of finance models to refill the ’empty antibiotic pipeline’. The diversity of chosen models reflected varying innovation concepts, political contingency, as well as shifting problem diagnoses about where support was most needed. Although a limited number of novel therapies have resulted from increased public and non-profit support, current international reviews show that the overall level of antimicrobial innovation remains insufficient in the face of escalating AMR. Reconstructing the historical trajectory of these finance models is not crucial when it comes to understanding why reinvigorating antimicrobial R&D has proven so complicated. To preserve this tacit generational knowledge, we invited key decision-makers from across clinical medicine, industry, funders, and international health to participate in a witness seminar on Emerging Financial Models for Antibiotic Development in Geneva in January 2024. The seminar was jointly organised by researchers from the Norwegian Research Council-funded Dry-Antibiotic Pipeline (Dry- AP) project and the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Health Centre. Following initial scene-setting by the project’s principal investigators, the seminar consisted of four sessions focusing (1) on the emergence of concerns about the antimicrobial pipeline, (2) the conceptualization of potential R&D solutions, and (3) emerging finance models between 2000 and 2016. This was followed by a final (4) session giving witnesses the opportunity to reflect in more detail on earlier or missed themes. The resulting five-hour discussion provides unprecedented detail on the interconnected world of high-level decision-making on antimicrobial innovation and AMR during a dynamic period of change for Global Health.