OpenAI, Thrive Capital Back AI Drug Discovery Startup (1)

Chai Discovery, an artificial intelligence biology startup founded six months ago, has raised nearly $30 million from heavyweights Thrive Capital and OpenAI to bring AI to drug discovery.

Chai develops AI foundation models that can predict the structure of biochemical molecules and reprogram how they interact, a process that is central to developing new medications. “We want to turn biology from a science into engineering,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Joshua Meier.

Chai Discovery team in the company’s San Francisco office.

Source: Chai Discovery

The company’s new seed round was led by Thrive, and also included Dimension Capital. The deal values Chai at $150 million, it said.

In recent years, ...