- Cambridge-based CuspAI is set to raise $400M in a new round backed by Jeff Bezos’s family office, Bezos Expeditions, alongside Kleiner Perkins, per the Financial Times.
- The deal, with term sheets signed but not yet finalised, would raise CuspAI’s valuation to $2.6 billion, up from $520 million just nine months ago.
- This news comes just six days after Bezos introduced Prometheus, his $41 billion physical AI lab, showing his growing commitment to real-world AI.
Jeff Bezos built Amazon, believing that distribution was the toughest challenge in commerce. Now, he seems to think materials discovery is the biggest challenge in physical AI, and he’s betting that this two-year-old Cambridge startup could solve it.
According to the Financial Times, CuspAI is set to raise $400M in a new funding round. Term sheets have been signed, though the deal is not yet closed. Investors in the round include Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner Perkins and Bezos Expeditions, the Amazon founder’s family office. The raise would quadruple CuspAI’s valuation to approximately $2.6B.
From atoms to algorithms
CuspAI was founded in 2024 in Cambridge, UK, by Dr Chad Edwards, a chemist and deep tech entrepreneur who previously helped grow quantum computing company Quantinuum, and Professor Max Welling, an AI expert who was a distinguished scientist at Microsoft Research and VP of technology at Qualcomm.
Both founders came to the same idea independently. Edwards had wanted to use AI in materials science for some time. When he met Welling, who had just left Microsoft and was considering the same path, they realised they shared the same vision.
CuspAI describes its platform as “a search engine for the material world.” Users enter the properties they need, such as strength, conductivity, or thermal tolerance, and the system suggests possible chemical compositions up to ten times faster than traditional methods.
What sets CuspAI apart is its focus on practicality. The company has developed what it calls “synthesis-aware generative AI models,” which means the materials it suggests can actually be manufactured, not just simulated. Its partners already include Meta for carbon capture, Hyundai for sustainable energy, and Kemira for removing PFAS compounds from water.
Competition in this space is growing quickly. Startups like Orbital Materials, co-founded by DeepMind alumni, and XtalPi, valued at $2.5 billion, are also using AI for materials discovery.
Established companies like Dassault Systèmes and Schrödinger are in the mix as well. Flagship Pioneering launched Lila Sciences with a $200 million seed round, and Periodic Labs, started by former OpenAI and Google DeepMind staff, raised a $200 million seed led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $1 billion valuation. CuspAI’s answer has been to move faster and aim higher.
The Bezos pattern
Just six days ago, Bezos publicly unveiled Prometheus, his physical AI lab, now valued at $41B, describing its mission as doing for engineering and manufacturing what large language models have done for text. It is his first chief executive role since leaving Amazon in 2021, and he has committed personal capital at scale.
Through Bezos Expeditions, he has invested in Anthropic, Perplexity AI, Physical Intelligence, and Figure AI in recent years, usually taking smaller, minority stakes across different AI fields. CuspAI, however, fits a more focused strategy: materials science is right at the intersection of generative AI and the physical world, which is exactly what Prometheus aims to address.
CuspAI’s advisory board features Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton and Turing Prize winner Yann LeCun. LeCun himself raised $1 billion in March 2026 to develop AI capable of understanding physics. The strong focus on physical AI among CuspAI’s top backers is probably not a coincidence.
A market with decades of demand compressed into months
The global AI in materials discovery market was valued at $2B in 2025 and is projected to reach $17.9B by 2034, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 28%, driven by demand for advanced materials in energy storage, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals.
CuspAI’s rapid growth shows this sense of urgency. The company raised a $30 million seed round in June 2024, followed by a $100 million Series A in September 2025, co-led by New Enterprise Associates and Temasek, valuing the company at $520 million. New commercial contracts later increased that valuation to about $800 million before the current round.
If the $400M closes as reported, total funding will stand at approximately $530M. The company currently employs around 65 people and is opening a London King’s Cross office in 2026.
This funding round raises a bigger question. Is the next wave of AI value not in language processing, but in software that can redesign physical materials? Bezos appears to think so.
