Kevin Weil has started a company called Warp Sciences. He led OpenAI’s science team before he left in April. Investors put $215 million into his new company. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the group. The company is worth $865 million, including the new money.
Warp will not find new medicines itself. Its work starts after researchers find a tiny piece of matter that could become a medicine. This is called a molecule. Researchers often make hundreds or thousands of different forms of it. They try to make it work better and cause fewer unwanted effects. Drug companies often send this work to Chinese businesses, especially WuXi AppTec. These businesses do it faster and for less money. But problems between the US and China have made this more risky. Some drug companies also worry about sharing private information.
Warp wants to do this work in the US. It plans a lab where machines do the work. Its team has about 20 people. It has already bought robot arms and special computer chips for AI. Its scientists will wear cameras and gloves that measure pressure during tests. These tools will collect information to teach its AI systems. Weil says AI needs information from real experiments to improve in this field.
