The British artificial intelligence startup CuspAI has completed a funding round of 450 million dollars (about 400 million euros), led by Kleiner Perkins and NEA, in which Bezos Expeditions --the investment vehicle of the magnate and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos-- and the Government of the United Kingdom have also participated.
With this operation, the company reaches a valuation of 2.6 billion dollars (2.28 billion euros), which strengthens its position to accelerate its international growth, prioritizing the markets of the United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Investors such as Temasek --the sovereign fund of Singapore--, Sovereign AI Venture Fund --UK AI fund--, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Lux Capital, and AMD Venture have also entered the shareholding.
This capital injection adds to a previous round, closed less than a year ago, in which CuspAI already raised more than 100 million dollars (about 87 million euros).
The announcement of the funding coincides with the launch of AI Materials Foundry, a global network of data, laboratories, computing capacity, and scientific knowledge aimed at designing new materials, driven by CuspAI and in collaboration with partners such as Nvidia, Meta, Samsung, and Hyundai.
"The opportunity we have before us has never been so urgent or so exciting. New materials can drive performance, sustainability, and offer new solutions to complex problems; the world simply cannot advance at the necessary pace with known materials, that is clear," reads a statement from the company signed by the co-founders, Chad Edwards and Max Welling.
"Most major technological advances are based on a material, and the next ones, from cheaper carbon capture to semiconductors and cleaner water, are stalled waiting for still unknown materials. CuspAI has created a search engine that changes this situation," stated the partner of Kleiner Perkins, Josh Coyne.