CuspAI, a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence startup specializing in materials discovery, has raised $450 million in a Series B funding round. The investment, which values the two-year-old company at $2.6 billion, includes backing from Jeff Bezos, the UK government’s sovereign AI fund, and existing investor Temasek. Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins co-led the round.
The funds will be used to accelerate CuspAI’s mission to discover novel materials for semiconductors, batteries, clean energy, and carbon capture—materials that do not yet exist. The company’s AI platform aims to slash research timelines and reduce reliance on scarce metals like iridium and ruthenium. Unlike many AI ventures focused on software, CuspAI applies frontier models to physical-world challenges, directly targeting bottlenecks in chip manufacturing, energy storage, and industrial sustainability.
This round follows a $100 million Series A raised last year. CuspAI plans to expand internationally, opening an office in Singapore and growing teams in Cambridge, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tokyo, and the United States. The funding coincides with the launch of CuspAI’s AI Materials Foundry, a collaboration involving over 45 technology companies, industrial groups, and research organizations. Partners include Nvidia, which will contribute computing infrastructure, Meta’s Fundamental AI Research team, and Hyundai, among many others.
The UK government’s participation reflects its broader effort to retain high-growth AI businesses and strengthen Britain’s technological ecosystem. Companies backed by the sovereign AI fund must maintain a primary UK office and have British founders; the government typically invests between £1 million and £10 million per firm.
Investor interest in AI-driven physical science is surging. Jeff Bezos has also supported Prometheus, an AI invention company founded in 2025 that is valued at around $41 billion. CuspAI’s co-founders, Dr. Chad Edwards and Professor Max Welling, stressed the urgency: “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 raise positions CuspAI at the intersection of AI and hard science, betting that materials discovery will be a critical frontier in the race to commercialise artificial intelligence.
