The AI startup Lila Sciences has raised another $115 million, with Nvidia’s venture arm joining the list of big-name investors. The new funding boosts the company’s valuation to over $1.3 billion, a clear sign that investors are betting big on the future of AI-driven scientific discovery.
Founded in 2023, Lila has an ambitious goal: to build a “scientific superintelligence.” The company’s unique approach combines specialized AI models with fully automated laboratories. These “AI Science Factories” are filled with robotic instruments that are controlled by AI and can run experiments 24/7.
Lila’s strategy is different from many other AI companies that train their models on vast amounts of data scraped from the internet. Instead, Lila is focused on generating its own, unique scientific data through millions of new experiments. The company believes that the future of AI in science will be won by whoever has the largest automated lab, not just the biggest data center.
“It will set in motion the scientific method in a new form,” said co-founder and CEO Geoffrey von Maltzahn. He says the goal is to dramatically speed up the pace of discovery, allowing AI models to help scientists solve problems much faster than ever before.
The company plans to use the new funding to expand its AI labs and open its platform to commercial customers in industries like energy, semiconductors, and drug development. Lila’s platform has already made thousands of discoveries, the company claims, and with this new cash infusion, it’s ready to take its AI-powered science to the next level.
