A Cambridge, U.K.-based artificial intelligence startup called CuspAI raised $450 million in a Series B funding round and launched an industry coalition to speed the discovery of new materials, the company announced Monday.
The round values CuspAI at $2.6 billion, up from $520 million last September, according to Bloomberg. Venture firms Kleiner Perkins and NEA led the round. Participants included Jeff Bezos's Bezos Expeditions, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Lux Capital, AMD Ventures, and Britain's Sovereign AI Venture Fund. Existing investors Temasek and Prosus also participated.
The new coalition, which CuspAI calls the AI Materials Foundry, brings together more than 45 organizations to pool computing resources, laboratory access, and scientific expertise on the company's platform. Members include Nvidia, Meta, Samsung, Hyundai Motor Group, and Lam Research.
Josh Coyne, partner at Kleiner Perkins, said in a statement: "Most big leaps in technology come down to a material, and the next set, from cheaper carbon capture to semiconductors and cleaner water, is stuck waiting on materials nobody has discovered yet. CuspAI built a search engine that changes that."
CuspAI's platform uses AI to model how new materials would perform, filtering a vast range of possibilities down to the most promising candidates before any physical testing takes place, according to CNBC. Co-founder and chief executive Chad Edwards said semiconductors will absorb 80% of the company's research bandwidth this year. A key goal is removing or replacing supply-constrained rare metals, including ruthenium and iridium, from chipmaking workflows.
Much of the new funding will support lab operations in Cambridge, Singapore, and the San Francisco Bay Area, Edwards said, according to Bloomberg. The company is also opening a new office in Singapore and expanding teams in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, and the United States.
CuspAI was founded by Edwards alongside Max Welling, a prominent machine learning researcher based in Amsterdam. Yann LeCun and Geoffrey Hinton, whose research laid much of the groundwork for modern AI, serve on the company's advisory board. On Monday, CuspAI also added Abhi Talwalkar, who serves on AMD's board and chairs Lam Research, to that advisory body. John Giannandrea, who held senior roles at both Apple and Google, joined part-time to help build out the company's California presence.
The Series B follows a Series A of more than $100 million raised less than a year ago, also led by NEA and Temasek. Despite the high-profile backing and growing industry alliances, CuspAI has not yet advanced any project to the point where a candidate material is ready for commercial development. The company's main competitors are in the same position.
