Miles Wang, a prominent researcher at OpenAI, has announced plans to leave the company and launch a new startup focused on developing artificial intelligence (AI) models for drug discovery. According to sources, Wang's new venture is in talks to raise around $200 million in funding, with Lightspeed at the helm.
The startup aims to leverage AI technology to accelerate the discovery of new drugs and identify new uses for existing medications. This approach could potentially lead to faster time-to-revenue and more efficient drug development processes. Finding new uses for FDA-approved drugs can result in significantly faster times to revenue than developing new drugs from scratch, as these medicines have already been tested for safety.
Wang's departure from OpenAI follows a string of high-profile exits from the company, which has been at the forefront of AI research and development. His new startup is expected to join a growing number of companies applying AI to life sciences and pharmaceuticals, with several notable examples already emerging in the market.
Chai Discovery, a two-year-old startup developing AI models to predict molecular interactions and identify new drugs, recently raised $400 million at a $3.8 billion valuation. Google DeepMind spinout Isomorphic Labs, which also develops AI models for drug discovery, raised a $2.1 billion Series B in May.