AMD invests in drug-discovery company Absci in push to sell AI chips

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Advanced Micro Devices is investing $20 million in Absci, a drug-discovery company based in Washington state, in a move aimed at selling its artificial intelligence chips in the healthcare sector. The deal is structured as a private investment in a public equity and includes an equity stake in Absci.

AMD didn’t disclose the amount of its stake. AMD, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., said the investment and partnership between the two companies will help reduce hardware costs and optimize AI solutions for Absci. The move is AMD’s first attempt to gain footing in life sciences with its AI chips, a space also targeted by its rival Nvidia.

In 2023, Nvidia invested $50 million to boost Recursion Pharmaceuticals’ AI-based drug-discovery efforts and provided the underlying hardware for that work. Mark Papermaster, AMD’s chief technology officer, said its relationship with Absci is the first of many efforts to make its graphics processing units, or GPUs, available to certain industries. “We’re now expanding our focus into vertical markets and prioritizing healthcare, where we can immediately have an impact on society," Papermaster said.

For AMD, investments in companies, including Absci, are a part of how it aims to make headway in the GPU market, which is dominated by Nvidia. AMD in December said it was part of a $333 million financing round for cloud company Vultr, for which it aims to become the “preferred" AI hardware provider. As part of AMD’s investment in Absci, the company will move toward greater use of AMD’s GPUs, said the company’s founder and Chief Executive Sean McClain.