MW Google AI legend raises big money for startup targeting this cutting-edge goal

By William Gavin

Isomorphic Labs, which spun out of Google in 2021, just raised $2.1 billion to develop new drugs using AI

Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and CEO of Google's DeepMind artificial-intelligence lab, also leads Google's efforts to advance drug design.

A startup led by the head of Google's DeepMind artificial-intelligence lab is trying to use AI to accelerate the creation of new drugs - and it just raised a solid chunk of change from investors.

Isomorphic Labs said on Tuesday that it had raised $2.1 billion in a series B financing round led by Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital, which has also backed OpenAI and led its earlier $600 million round. Google parent Alphabet $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$, which was an existing investor, participated in the new round as well.

Isomorphic Labs said it raised funds from MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm that has invested in xAI, OpenAI and Anthropic, and from Temasek, an investment firm owned by Singapore's finance ministry. The United Kingdom's Sovereign AI Fund, which plans to invest $675 million in homegrown startups, was also listed as an investor in the round.

"I've always believed the No.1 application of AI should be to improve human health," Isomorphic Labs CEO and founder Demis Hassabis said in a statement. "We are turbocharging that goal" with the new funds, he added.

Hassabis is also the co-founder and CEO of Google's DeepMind AI lab. In 2021, Isomorphic Labs was spun out of DeepMind to "reimagine" the drug-discovery process. The company, which has partnered with drugmakers like Johnson & Johnson $(JNJ)$ and Eli Lilly $(LLY)$, in February published a drug-design system that it said more than doubles the accuracy of its previous AI program, which is capable of predicting protein structures.

Read more: Novo Nordisk's stock rallied after drugmaker reveals deal with OpenAI

In April, Max Jaderberg, president of Isomorphic Labs, said at a Wired conference that the company is preparing for human trials of drugs designed by its AI technology. In 2025, Hassabis had said he expected to have AI-designed drugs in clinical testing by the end of that year.

Hassabis on Tuesday said that the company is now focused on scaling its technology and that Isomorphic Labs' new funding will help it do that. It plans to use that cash in part to hire "world-class" talent with expertise in AI, drug design or other areas, he said.

Several drugmakers are now working with AI partners on everything from designing drugs to boosting supply-chain productivity. Novo Nordisk (NVO) last month announced a broad collaboration with OpenAI, while Sanofi $(SNY)$ has partnered with both OpenAI and Formation Bio.

And while Isomorphic Labs has a lot going for it, it's not the only "AI-bio" company working with a legacy pharmaceutical partner to develop its own drugs.

In 2023, Hong King-based Insilico Medicine (HK:3696) told CNBC it had developed the first drug to reach human clinical trials that was fully designed by generative AI. In March, the company said it would collaborate with Eli Lilly on AI-powered drug discovery.

"By deploying frontier AI technologies that scale from biomarkers to life models, world models of human and animal life, we can identify multi-purpose targets driving multiple diseases at the same time," Insilico founder Alex Zhavoronkov said in a statement.

Read more: Lilly is selling $12.9 billion of GLP-1 drugs every three months - and expects to sell even more

-William Gavin

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May 12, 2026 12:17 ET (16:17 GMT)

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