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Periodic Labs Launches With $300 Million Seed to Build AI Scientists and Autonomous Labs

The startup aims to generate proprietary experimental data by linking AI-driven hypotheses to robotic experiments in a closed loop.

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Periodic Labs raises $300M for AI robotic labs

Overview

  • The seed round is backed by a16z, DST, NVentures (NVIDIA), Accel, Felicis, and notable angels including Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Dean, and Elad Gil.
  • Co-founders Ekin Dogus Cubuk and Liam Fedus previously led materials AI at Google Brain/DeepMind and research at OpenAI, respectively.
  • Periodic Labs plans self-driving laboratories where AI agents design, run, and analyze experiments, capturing high-signal results including failed trials.
  • Initial applications target new superconductors and materials challenges such as chip heat dissipation, with the company citing work with an unnamed semiconductor manufacturer.
  • The team’s credentials span ChatGPT, DeepMind’s GNoME, OpenAI’s Operator/Agent, and the neural attention mechanism, entering a field also pursued by academic groups and startups like Tetsuwan Scientific, Future House, and the University of Toronto’s Acceleration Consortium.