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Periodic Labs builds AI scientists and autonomous laboratory systems to accelerate materials discovery. Their platform fuses large language models, physics simulations, and robotics to autonomously hypothesize, synthesize, and test novel materials — starting with next-generation superconductors.
Periodic Labs builds AI scientists and autonomous laboratory systems to accelerate materials discovery. Their platform fuses large language models, physics simulations, and robotics to autonomously hypothesize, synthesize, and test novel materials — starting with next-generation superconductors.
Founded in 2025 by Liam Fedus (former VP of Research at OpenAI and co-creator of ChatGPT) and Ekin Dogus Cubuk (former head of Google DeepMind's materials and chemistry team and co-creator of GNoME). The two former Google Brain colleagues reunited to build AI systems that can automate scientific research in the physical world, going beyond internet-scale data to generate and test hypotheses in real labs.
Multiple outlets covered Periodic Labs as part of a wave of ex-OpenAI and Google Brain founders launching high-profile AI startups, with Periodic Labs standing out for its record-breaking seed round size.
TechCrunch published a detailed profile of Periodic Labs covering how co-founders Liam Fedus and Ekin Dogus Cubuk attracted a who's who of investors with their vision for AI-driven scientific discovery.
Periodic Labs revealed its near-term operational milestone: deploying autonomous powder synthesis labs where materials are turned into powder, heated, and mixed to discover new compounds. Initial focus is on superconductors for next-gen chips and power grid infrastructure.
Periodic Labs publicly launched its AI scientist platform, combining large language models, physics simulations, and robotic labs to autonomously design and test new materials. The company's first target is discovering next-generation room-temperature superconductors.
Periodic Labs emerged from stealth with a $300M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Felicis, DST Global, NVentures (NVIDIA), Accel, Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Dean, and Elad Gil. The round reportedly values the company at ~$1B pre-money.
a16z published an announcement detailing their thesis for investing in Periodic Labs, highlighting the company's potential to accelerate materials science discovery using AI and autonomous labs.
Liam Fedus posted on LinkedIn announcing Periodic Labs, describing the company's mission to build AI scientists and autonomous laboratories for materials discovery alongside co-founder Ekin Dogus Cubuk.
Co-Founder & CTO
Previously Research Lead, Materials and Chemistry at Google DeepMind
Former head of Google DeepMind's materials and chemistry team. Co-created GNoME, a model that generated millions of candidate crystal structures. Co-founded Periodic Labs to automate scientific discovery using AI and robotics.
$300M raised total