Key takeaways
- NVIDIA and Lilly will co-invest up to $1 billion in an AI lab to develop biomedical core models and scale AI in pharmaceutical operations.
- The lab will connect wet and dry labs in a continuous AI learning loop, accelerating experimentation and molecule discovery.
Share this article
NVIDIA and Eli Lilly announced the creation of a joint AI co-innovation lab to accelerate drug discovery and pharmaceutical innovation, committing up to $1 billion over five years.
The lab, based in South San Francisco, brings together Lilly’s pharmaceutical R&D expertise and NVIDIA’s AI and compute infrastructure to create next-generation core models using NVIDIA BioNeMo™.
The initiative will bring together domain scientists and AI engineers to create a continuous learning system connecting Lilly’s wet labs and dry labs for 24/7 AI-assisted experimentation. The goal is to use large-scale data and calculations to shorten the drug development cycle and improve molecule identification and validation.
NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang called the lab “a model for drug discovery,” allowing scientists to explore vast chemical spaces in silico. Lilly CEO David Ricks said the partnership could “reinvent drug discovery” by combining Lilly’s proprietary data with NVIDIA’s model-building capabilities.
This collaboration expands on Lilly’s previous investments in AI, including the launch of its AI factory and supercomputer. The lab will leverage the NVIDIA Vera Rubin architecture and use digital twins, robotics and agentic AI to optimize manufacturing, supply chains and clinical operations.
Lilly’s TuneLab platform will integrate NVIDIA Clara™ open foundation models for biotechnology partners, while NVIDIA’s Inception program will support ecosystem startups with access to compute and technical guidance.
