Semiwiki on LinkedIn Semiwiki on Facebook Semiwiki on Twitter Register / Log in 
Array
(
    [content] => 
    [params] => Array
        (
            [0] => /forum/threads/google-backed-ai-drug-discovery-startup-raises-600-million.22442/
        )

    [addOns] => Array
        (
            [DL6/MLTP] => 13
            [Hampel/TimeZoneDebug] => 1000070
            [SV/ChangePostDate] => 2010200
            [SemiWiki/Newsletter] => 1000010
            [SemiWiki/WPMenu] => 1000010
            [SemiWiki/XPressExtend] => 1000010
            [ThemeHouse/XLink] => 1000970
            [ThemeHouse/XPress] => 1010570
            [XF] => 2021770
            [XFI] => 1050270
        )

    [wordpress] => /var/www/html
)

Google-backed AI drug discovery startup raises $600 million

Daniel Nenni

Daniel Nenni

Admin
Staff member
(Reuters) - Isomorphic Labs, which uses artificial intelligence technologies for drug discovery, has raised $600 million in its first ever external funding round led by Thrive Capital, the startup said on Monday.

Google Ventures and Alphabet, an existing investor, also participated in the round.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Top tech companies are racing to position AI-powered offerings as central to their products and services.

Startups catering to the surge in demand for generative AI and machine learning have been a bright spot in the private funding market.

CONTEXT

Isomorphic was founded in 2021 as a spin-off from Alphabet's AI research subsidiary Google Deepmind, which it acquired in 2014.

Last May, the company unveiled the third major version of its Nobel-winning "AlphaFold" artificial intelligence model, which is able to predict almost all known proteins structures.

WHAT'S NEXT

The London-based company said funds raised will be used to accelerate research and development as well as talent acquisition.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Demis Hassabis, who also leads Deepmind, suggested in January that Isomorphic Labs will have AI-designed drugs in clinical trials by the end of 2025.


Reimagining Drug Discovery Process with AI - Isomorphic Labs

Isomorphic Labs is building a future where frontier AI can help to unlock deeper scientific insights, faster breakthroughs, and life-changing medicines.
www.isomorphiclabs.com
 
The AI bubble isn’t dying yet. I lived through the DotCom bubble, where money was wasted like there was no tomorrow. So many people were hired into developer roles as long as they knew HTML. When the DotCom bubble popped, many lost their jobs, and companies went bankrupt, leading to money flowing into real estate, led to the Big Short. But not everything was bad. Amazon emerged from the DotCom bubble and went on to become a trillion-dollar company. Hopefully, something great comes out of this AI bubble too.
 
It kind of feels like the Dot Com bust but on a smaller scale. I also see more money coming from big companies than during the Dot Com fiasco which was fueled by VCs. Do you remember WebVan? A precursor to Amazon.com that lost $800M. That was a slow motion train wreck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top