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Former OpenAI science lead Kevin Weil has unveiled Warp Sciences, an artificial intelligence startup dedicated to streamlining laboratory operations for pharmaceutical development. The company, which equips robots to synthesize and evaluate promising compounds proposed by researchers, has attracted $215 million in financing at an $865 million valuation, according to Weil, who revealed the venture and investment during a post on X. The funding round was spearheaded by Lightspeed, joined by IVP, Premji Invest, and Lux Capital.

For decades, biotechnology firms have outsourced the most labor-intensive tasks of synthesizing thousands of compound variations to contractors in China, such as WuXi AppTec. With Warp Sciences, Weil aims to bring those tasks back home and safeguard the entire drug discovery process against geopolitical supply-chain vulnerabilities.

Dressed in cameras and sensor-studded gloves, human chemists at Warp Sciences will train robots to execute various laboratory tasks. By automating wet-lab workflows, Warp Sciences seeks to expedite drug discovery through robots capable of operating continuously.