Ex-OpenAI and DeepMind Researchers Raise $300M for New AI Venture

Periodic Labs, founded by ex-OpenAI and DeepMind researchers, has raised $300 million in seed funding to transform scientific discovery by building AI scientists and autonomous laboratories. Founded by Ekin Dogus Cubuk, former leader of Google Brain and DeepMind's materials and chemistry team, and Liam Fedus, former OpenAI VP of Research and one of the architects behind ChatGPT, Periodic Labs is backed by a list of impressive investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, Jeff Dean, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Bezos, and more.

Cubuk’s prior work included GNoME, an AI model that discovered over two million new crystal structures in 2023, revealing new materials with potential for next-gen technologies. Fedus contributed substantially to OpenAI's breakthroughs, including leading development of the first trillion-parameter neural network. Their team also features key contributors from OpenAI’s Operator agent and Microsoft’s MatterGen, an LLM focused on materials discovery.

The Vision

Periodic Labs is on a mission to automate the process of scientific discovery by creating AI scientists capable of running autonomous labs. These labs use robots to physically conduct experiments, be it mixing, heating, or analyzing materials, then collect data, learn from it, improve, and iterate continuously.

Unlike traditional AI which relies heavily on internet-trained models, Periodic Labs generates entirely novel, real-world datasets through hands-on experiments, enabling a new frontier of AI learning and discovery.