CuspAI raises $450M to build AI search engine for rare materials

A two-year-old Cambridge-based artificial intelligence startup has secured $450 million in Series B funding to build what it calls a "search engine for rare materials" — software designed to accelerate the discovery of materials critical to chipmaking, energy storage, and other advanced technologies.

CuspAI, now valued at $2.6 billion, drew investment from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the UK government's sovereign AI fund, according to details first reported by The Guardian. The funding round was co-led by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.

The company has launched the AI Materials Foundry, a coalition of more than 48 organizations including chipmaker Nvidia, Meta Platforms, and automaker Hyundai. The initiative aims to use frontier AI models — the most advanced general-purpose systems — to discover materials that could make semiconductors more powerful, batteries more efficient, and energy networks more capable.

Targeting supply chain bottlenecks

CuspAI's technology specifically targets the use of rare metals like iridium and ruthenium in chipmaker supply chains. The company says its AI-powered approach can significantly reduce research timelines for new materials, addressing what co-founders Dr. Chad Edwards and Prof. Max Welling describe as a fundamental constraint on industrial progress.

"If we don't make progress fast, the next 50 years of industrial progress will be constrained by a single challenge: the world needs materials that don't yet exist," the co-founders said in a statement.

Josh Coyne, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, framed the opportunity in practical terms: "Most big leaps in technology come down to a material, and the next set, from cheaper carbon capture to semiconductors and cleaner water, is stuck waiting on materials nobody has discovered yet."

Why it matters

The semiconductor industry faces mounting pressure to reduce dependence on scarce materials as chip demand accelerates with AI adoption. Traditional materials discovery can take years or decades; AI-driven approaches promise to compress those timelines dramatically. CuspAI's ability to attract both private capital and government backing at a $2.6 billion valuation signals growing confidence that computational methods can solve physical supply chain constraints — a shift that could reshape how industries approach R&D bottlenecks.

Expansion and government backing

The new capital will fund international expansion, including a Singapore office and increased headcount in Cambridge, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tokyo, and the United States. CuspAI has brought on John Giannandrea, a former Apple and Google executive, to establish US operations, and is working with Abhi Talwalkar, a board member at AMD and chair of Lam Research.

CuspAI is the fourth company to receive funding from the UK government's sovereign AI fund, which targets early-stage British AI firms with equity investments typically ranging from £1 million to £10 million. Eligibility criteria include maintaining a main office in the UK and having British founders. The government did not disclose the size of its investment in CuspAI.

Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the investment supports the company's work on "some of the biggest challenges facing the UK and the world today, such as energy and climate change."

The Series B round follows a $100 million Series A investment CuspAI raised in 2025.

Details of the funding and coalition were first reported by The Guardian.