Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the UK government’s sovereign AI fund have invested in CuspAI, a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence company focused on materials discovery. The funding round valued the two-year-old startup at £2.6bn, with the company raising $450m including contributions from both Bezos and the government investment vehicle.
CuspAI has established the AI Materials Foundry, a coalition comprising more than 48 organizations including technology companies, industrial firms, and research institutions. The initiative aims to leverage advanced AI models to identify and develop novel materials for semiconductor manufacturers and other sectors. The company’s stated objective is to accelerate the discovery process while reducing dependence on rare metals such as iridium and ruthenium in supply chains.
The coalition membership includes major technology and industrial players such as chipmaker Nvidia, Meta Platforms, and automotive manufacturer Hyundai. These partners intend to apply frontier artificial intelligence technology to identify materials that could improve energy networks, battery efficiency, and semiconductor performance. Company co-founders Dr Chad Edwards and Prof Max Welling emphasized the urgency of developing previously unknown materials to support continued industrial progress.
The Series B funding will support CuspAI’s geographic expansion, including the establishment of a new office in Singapore and workforce increases across existing locations in Cambridge, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tokyo, and the United States. The company has recruited John Giannandrea, a former executive at Apple and Google, to lead US operations development. CuspAI represents the fourth company to receive backing from the government’s sovereign AI fund, which targets early-stage British AI firms with the goal of enabling them to scale competitively on the global stage. The previous Series A funding round had raised $100m.
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