{"text":[[{"start":7.55,"text":"Jeff Bezos is investing in UK start-up CuspAI as part of a $400mn financing that will more than quadruple the two-year-old AI developer’s valuation to $2.6bn. "}],[{"start":20.8,"text":"CuspAI applies generative AI to material sciences and counts AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun and former BP chief Lord John Browne as advisers."}],[{"start":34.4,"text":"The deal will see the Cambridge-based company’s valuation jump from $520mn last September to $2.6bn, including the new capital raised. Investors include Silicon Valley venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins and Bezos Expeditions, the Amazon founder’s family office, according to people familiar with the matter."}],[{"start":55.849999999999994,"text":"Term sheets have been signed but the deal has not yet closed, the people added. CuspAI and Kleiner Perkins declined to comment. Bezos Expeditions did not respond to a request for comment. "}],[{"start":67.19999999999999,"text":"CuspAI was co-founded by Chad Edwards, who previously co-founded a quantum computing start-up, and Max Welling, a professor of machine learning at the University of Amsterdam who is a pioneer of AI’s application to science. "}],[{"start":81.19999999999999,"text":"The company had previously raised more than $220mn from investors including Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek and venture capital firm NEA. "}],[{"start":90.79999999999998,"text":"It is one of several start-ups hoping that AI can unlock advances in scientific research and discover new materials. Another example of how AI can be applied to the physical world is Bezos’s own start-up, Prometheus, which has raised $12bn and is valued at $41bn. It aims to build an “artificial general engineer” that can shorten design and manufacturing pipelines. "}],[{"start":116.99999999999999,"text":"Prometheus is opening an office in London’s King’s Cross area, which has become a nexus for UK AI start-ups. However, Bezos’s investment in CuspAI is believed to be in a personal capacity and unrelated to his role as co-CEO of Prometheus. "}],[{"start":132.6,"text":"CuspAI’s technology uses “inverse design” to work backwards from a material’s desired properties then rapidly test performance and manufacturability in a digital simulation. Investors say it could have wide-ranging applications from semiconductors to aerospace. "}],[{"start":150.54999999999998,"text":"Its customers include chip equipment manufacturer ASML, Big Tech group Meta and automaker Hyundai. They use its technology to design and simulate new materials with the properties they need to develop new products, accelerating what is typically a years-long process into months. "}],[{"start":168.2,"text":"Finnish chemicals group Kemira said last month that it had used CuspAI’s systems to help design new materials that could remove PFAS or “forever chemicals” from drinking water. "}],[{"start":179.35,"text":"Over six months, the project narrowed 300tn potential material structures to 20 candidate designs that are now advancing into further development. "}],[{"start":197.39999999999998,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1781674317_6894.mp3"}