Kevin Weil Founds AI Startup Warp Sciences for Drug Trials

    Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s former head of science, has founded an artificial intelligence startup called Warp Sciences to automate laboratory work in drug development. The company will use robots to produce and test promising chemical compounds selected by researchers. Weil announced the startup’s launch and its first funding round on the X platform.    Warp Sciences has raised $215 million (approximately 366 million manats). Following the investment, the company’s valuation reached $865 million (approximately 1 billion 471 million manats). The funding round was led by Lightspeed. IVP, Premji Invest, and Lux Capital also participated in the financing.    Biotechnology companies have long outsourced highly time- and labor-intensive work, such as producing thousands of molecular variants, to contractors in China. WuXi AppTec is among them. Kevin Weil wants to bring this work back to the United States with Warp Sciences. The goal is to protect the drug development process from geopolitical problems and supply risks.    The startup’s chemists will use cameras and sensor-equipped gloves to teach robots various laboratory tasks. This involves producing and testing substances in real-world laboratory conditions. Warp Sciences plans to accelerate experiments with robots that can work around the clock and test new drug candidates more quickly.