Jeff Bezos is betting that the next major AI breakthrough won’t come from a chatbot. It will come from the discovery of new materials that could reshape semiconductors, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing.
That vision drew investors to British startup CuspAI, which announced Monday that it has raised $450 million in a funding round led by Kleiner Perkins and NEA, valuing the company at $2.6 billion. Bezos participated through Bezos Expeditions, his personal investment firm. New investors include Glade Brook Capital Partners, Lux Capital, AMD Ventures, and Britain’s Sovereign AI Venture Fund.
The news comes about a month after the Financial Times reported that CuspAI was seeking to raise roughly $400 million at a $2.6 billion valuation. The startup ultimately closed a larger $450 million round.
The funding comes alongside a major industry partnership that brings together Nvidia, Meta, and more than 40 other organizations to help CuspAI speed up the search for new materials using artificial intelligence.
CuspAI is tackling a problem that has slowed scientific progress for decades. Developing new materials has traditionally involved years of laboratory experiments, trial and error, and enormous research costs. The company’s AI models simulate how new materials are likely to perform before scientists ever synthesize them, narrowing millions of possibilities to a much smaller set of promising candidates.
Investors see that approach as a way to shorten the path from scientific theory to real-world products.
“Most big leaps in technology come down to a material, and the next set, from cheaper carbon capture to semiconductors and cleaner water, is stuck waiting on materials nobody has discovered yet,” Josh Coyne, partner at Kleiner Perkins, said in a statement. “CuspAI built a search engine that changes that.”
Why Jeff Bezos and Nvidia Are Betting on CuspAI to Discover the Materials of the Future
The startup reflects a broader shift in artificial intelligence. Much of the industry’s attention has centered on models that generate text, images, and software. A growing number of companies are now applying AI to scientific discovery, engineering, manufacturing, and other physical industries where new discoveries can produce lasting economic impact.
Bezos has already placed a large bet in that direction. His startup Prometheus, founded in 2025, is developing AI systems for invention and physical engineering. The company has reportedly raised $12 billion at a $41 billion valuation, highlighting growing investor interest in AI applications beyond software, according to CNBC.
CuspAI is expanding its own global footprint with a new office in Singapore and growing teams across the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, and the United States.
At the center of its strategy is a newly launched AI Materials Foundry, a collaborative network that combines proprietary AI models, scientific data, laboratory facilities, computing infrastructure, and materials science expertise. The goal is to give researchers a faster path from computer-generated predictions to physical validation.
Nvidia is one of 45 organizations contributing computing infrastructure to the initiative. Meta’s Fundamental AI Research team has joined the effort, adding another major technology company to the project.
“As AI transforms the physical world, new materials will open up new frontiers across semiconductors, energy and advanced manufacturing,” Chad Edwards, CEO and cofounder of CuspAI, said.
“The AI Materials Foundry brings NVIDIA accelerated computing infrastructure together with world-class chemistry and materials expertise to help power the next generation of materials discovery.”
The investment signals that some of the biggest names in technology are looking beyond consumer AI products. Their focus is shifting toward scientific discovery, where breakthroughs in materials could influence everything from next-generation chips to cleaner industrial processes to future energy systems.
CuspAI founders (Credit: CuspAI)
