Jeff Bezos and the UK government have invested in a £2bn British artificial intelligence startup, CuspAI, which aims to become the 'search engine for rare materials' to accelerate technological breakthroughs. The Cambridge-based company has raised $450m (£330m) in series B funding from investors including Bezos and the government’s sovereign AI fund, valuing the two-year-old business at $2.6bn.
AI Materials Foundry Coalition
CuspAI has launched the AI Materials Foundry, a coalition of over 48 tech companies, industrial firms, and research facilities, to build AI-powered software for discovering and developing new materials for chipmakers and other industries. The coalition includes Nvidia, Meta Platforms, and Hyundai. The goal is to significantly cut research times and reduce or eliminate the use of rare metals like iridium and ruthenium in chipmakers’ supply chains.
Mission and Impact
Co-founders Dr Chad Edwards and Prof Max Welling stated: 'If we don’t make progress fast, the next 50 years of industrial progress will be constrained by a single challenge: the world needs materials that don’t yet exist. That’s what we’re on a mission to solve – combining frontier agentic AI with deep domain expertise, exclusive data access and close customer partnerships.'
The company aims to use frontier AI models to discover materials that could improve energy networks, batteries, and semiconductors. Josh Coyne, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, which co-led the funding round, said: 'Most big leaps in technology come down to a material, and the next set, from cheaper carbon capture to semiconductors and cleaner water, is stuck waiting on materials nobody has discovered yet. CuspAI built a search engine that changes that.'
Expansion and Government Support
The series B funding will enable CuspAI to expand internationally, opening a new office in Singapore and increasing staff in Cambridge, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tokyo, and the US. The company previously raised $100m in series A funding last year. CuspAI is the fourth company to receive funding from the government’s sovereign AI fund, which typically invests between £1m and £10m in early-stage British AI firms. The government did not disclose the size of its investment.
Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: 'CuspAI is putting the power of AI to work to help us tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the UK and the world today, such as energy and climate change. By backing British companies such as this we are paving the way for breakthroughs that are set to grow our economy, protect the natural world and improve everyone’s lives.'
Leadership and Partnerships
CuspAI has brought on board John Giannandrea, a former Apple and Google executive, to help set up its US operations. The company is also working with Abhi Talwalkar, a board member at AMD and chair of Lam Research.
