Kevin Weil, formerly the science lead at OpenAI, has started a new AI company called Warp Sciences that aims to automate laboratory work used in drug discovery. Weil announced the launch and the company's funding on X. The startup trains robots to produce and test compounds that researchers have flagged as promising.
Warp Sciences has raised $215 million at a valuation of $865 million, according to Weil. Lightspeed led the round. IVP, Mayfield, Lux Capital, Premji Invest and Menlo Ventures also participated.
The company is entering a part of biotech where the most labor-intensive work, synthesizing thousands of variations of molecules, has for years been handled by contractors in China, including WuXi AppTec. Weil said he wants Warp Sciences to bring that work back to the United States and to shield the drug development process from geopolitical supply-chain risks.
To teach its systems, the startup plans to have its human chemists wear cameras and sensor gloves while they carry out various lab tasks. That recorded activity becomes the training data for the robots. Weil's stated goal is to speed up drug discovery by automating wet-lab work with robots that can operate around the clock.
The launch places Warp Sciences among AI-driven biotech ventures seeking to shorten the timeline for identifying and testing drug candidates. Its approach pairs human chemists with machine learning rather than replacing the researchers who decide which compounds are worth pursuing. The company has not disclosed which specific diseases or compound classes it will target first.
For a US technology audience, the venture is notable both for its scale at launch and for its explicit pitch around domestic lab capacity. The $215 million round and $865 million valuation put it among the more heavily funded entrants in the sector at the time of its announcement. Weil's background at OpenAI gives the company a high-profile founder in a field where AI and laboratory automation increasingly overlap.
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