AI materials discovery startup Cusp AI has raised a $450m Series B round, valuing the company at $2.6bn. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins and NEA, with participation from Jeff Bezos's family office Bezos Expeditions. New investors include Glade Brook Capital Partners, Lux Capital, AMD Ventures, Britain's Sovereign AI Venture Fund, the Netherlands' Invest-NL and venture capitalist John Doerr.

Founded in 2024 by Chad Edwards and Max Welling, the Cambridge-based company is building an AI platform to discover new materials for semiconductors, clean energy and advanced manufacturing. The funding will expand operations across the US, Europe and Asia. Cusp AI also unveiled its AI Materials Foundry, a network of compute providers, laboratories, proprietary data and scientific expertise. More than 45 organisations have joined as founding members, including Nvidia, Meta's Fundamental AI Research team, Samsung, Hyundai Motor Group, Hitachi High-Tech and Merck.

Cusp AI's proprietary AI platform, MIRA, will coordinate the end-to-end discovery process. CEO Chad Edwards warned that without fast progress, the next 50 years of industrial progress could be constrained by the need for materials that don't yet exist. The round confirms earlier FT reports of talks at a $2.6bn valuation, more than quadrupling its valuation since its $100m round in September last year. Existing investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northzone, NEA and Temasek, while its board includes AI pioneer Yann Le Cun and Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton.