AMD made strategic investment in drug-discovery firm
Advanced Micro Devices is committing $20 million to Absci, a drug-discovery firm located in Washington state, as part of a strategy to penetrate the healthcare market with its artificial intelligence chips. The arrangement is designed as a private investment in public equity, encompassing an equity interest in Absci. AMD refrained from revealing the size of its investment. AMD, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, announced that the collaboration and investment with Absci will facilitate a reduction in hardware expenses and enhance AI solutions for the latter.
The initiative marks AMD’s inaugural foray into the life sciences sector with its AI chips, an arena similarly pursued by its competitor Nvidia. In 2023, Nvidia allocated $50 million to enhance Recursion Pharmaceuticals’ AI-driven drug discovery initiatives and supplied the necessary hardware to support these endeavors. Mark Papermaster, AMD’s chief technology officer, indicated that the partnership with Absci marks the initial step in a broader strategy to extend the availability of its graphics processing units, or GPUs, to select industries.
“We are now broadening our focus to include vertical markets, with a particular emphasis on healthcare, where we can promptly influence societal outcomes,” Papermaster stated. AMD’s strategic investments in firms such as Absci reflect its ambitions to penetrate the GPU market, currently under the stronghold of Nvidia. In December, AMD announced its participation in a $333 million financing round for cloud company Vultr, positioning itself as the intended “preferred” provider of AI hardware.
In a strategic move, AMD is set to enhance its collaboration with Absci, with a focus on the increased utilization of AMD’s GPUs, as articulated by the company’s founder and Chief Executive, Sean McClain. Absci presently employs more than 470 artificial intelligence chips, the majority of which are Nvidia’s graphics processing units. He indicated that there will be a transition of certain AI drug discovery tasks to AMD’s GPUs. Efforts in drug discovery utilizing artificial intelligence necessitate substantial computational resources—a limitation that Absci swiftly encountered, as noted by McClain. The appeal of AMD’s partnership and investment lies in its potential to reduce Absci’s inference costs, which pertain to the expenses associated with utilizing AI models.
“A significant transition is underway from traditional drug design in wet laboratories to the utilization of artificial intelligence for drug development, underscoring the critical importance of computational resources.” “Our computing expenses have surged dramatically,” McClain stated. Absci is collaborating with AMD to create hardware and software solutions aimed at enhancing the healthcare sector and advancing AI-driven drug discovery efforts, he noted.
The firm employs approximately 160 individuals and has successfully secured a cumulative funding of around $567 million. Absci announced its intention to allocate the new funding towards the advancement of its AI models and to further its internal drug development initiatives. Commencing in the latter half of the year, it announced that results from a clinical trial for a drug aimed at treating inflammatory bowel disease would be forthcoming.
