OpenAI science chief launches drug startup

Kevin Weil, who led OpenAI's science unit until April, has launched Warp Sciences with two hundred fifteen million dollars in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Warp valued at $865M with backing from tech leaders

The round values Warp at eight hundred sixty five million dollars including new money. Investors include IVP, Premji Invest and Lux Capital, plus angels Sarah Friar, Brian Armstrong and Reid Hoffman.

Automating drug work outsourced to China

Warp is building a fully automated lab to bring back to the US work that drugmakers have long sent to Chinese firms like WuXi AppTec because they are cheaper and faster.

US-China tensions drive shift from outsourcing

The Pentagon added WuXi AppTec to its list of companies linked to China's military in June, though a judge blocked the move in August. Some drugmakers also worry about sharing sensitive data with Chinese contractors.

AI models need experimental data to advance

Weil said frontier AI models are not yet changing drug development the way they change software engineering because the field is experimentally driven. Models need to see that data to improve.

“It's still an area where frontier AI models are not yet changing the world in the way models are changing the world in software engineering and math.”