Jeff Bezos and the UK government have poured money into CuspAI, a two-year-old Cambridge startup valued at $2.6 billion that aims to build what it calls a search engine for new materials. The company raised $450 million in Series B funding, with participation from Bezos and the UK’s sovereign AI fund, to accelerate the discovery of substances that could replace rare metals in chips and batteries.

CuspAI launched the AI Materials Foundry, a coalition of 48 companies including Nvidia, Meta, and Hyundai, to develop software that uses frontier AI models to find materials that don’t yet exist. The goal is to slash research times and eliminate reliance on scarce elements like iridium and ruthenium in semiconductor supply chains. Co-founders Chad Edwards and Max Welling said the world is stuck because known materials can’t meet the demands of the next 50 years of industrial progress, from energy networks to semiconductors.

The funding will fuel international expansion, with new offices in Singapore and hiring across Cambridge, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tokyo, and the US. CuspAI is the fourth startup backed by the UK’s sovereign AI fund, which invests between £1 million and £10 million in early-stage British firms. Science Secretary Liz Kendall said the company is using AI to tackle challenges like energy and climate change, while the startup has also brought on former Apple and Google executive John Giannandrea to lead US operations.

Source: The Guardian