Jeff Bezos Backs UK AI Firm CuspAI in $450 Million Push to Find New Chipmaking Materials

CuspAI, a two-year-old Cambridge, U.K., startup, raised $450 million in Series B financing at a $2.6 billion valuation to accelerate AI-driven discovery of materials for semiconductors and other industries. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins and NEA, with significant participation from Jeff Bezos’s family office, and supports a new AI Materials Foundry—an alliance of more than 48 firms and labs including Nvidia, Meta and Hyundai—to pool computing and scientific resources. CuspAI plans to devote 80% of its research this year to materials discovery, with labs in Cambridge, Singapore and the San Francisco Bay Area, aiming to cut costs and time versus traditional methods. The company pivoted from carbon capture and water purification to chipmaking materials amid tight semiconductor supplies, and is targeting reductions in the use of hard-to-source metals such as ruthenium and iridium.

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