Combining AI with experiments to solve real-world materials problems

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Prefer Chemistry Worldin Google search No comments Cambridge, UK-based computational chemistry company CuspAI has formed a network of 45 organisations, aimed at discovering new functional materials using artificial intelligence (AI). The AI Materials Foundry includes tech giants like Facebook parent company Meta and chipmaker.

What Happened

It also involves high-profile companies spanning the automotive, chemical, solar power and semiconductor industries, as well as scientific data providers. CuspAI plans to work with the partners to make and test predictions for innovative new materials.

• As part of its ‘AI for materials platform’ CuspAI uses Meta’s Universal Model for Atoms (UMA), also released in 2025.

• Alongside its partnership agreements, CuspAI has raised £330 million from investors, including Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos and national funds from the UK and the Netherlands, where some CuspAI activities reside.

• Walsh notes that he’s previously seen excitement around technologies such as high-throughput screening and combinatorial chemistry when they first emerged.

Key Details

Predicting whether a material has a desired property is the easy part. The constraint has shifted to synthesis, stability under real operating conditions and manufacturability.

• Amid large amounts of investment in AI-related companies, there are concerns that the technology is overhyped.

• The company earns revenue from its relationships in different ways, Walsh notes, but eventually wants to earn royalties from sales of materials it has helped discover.

• The science ‘gets a bit more serious or focused when you’re dealing with the direct industrial problems and processes’, Walsh says, hence the move to partner with more materials companies.

Why It Matters

My expectation is that value will accrue to those who achieve real-world impact. CuspAI chief scientific officer and Imperial College London materials scientist Aron Walsh tells Chemistry World that working for the startup is interesting because of its ability to scale.

• CuspAI suggested 20 novel metal–organic frameworks for removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) pollutants from water in six months rather than several years.

• Beyond its carbon capture work, an important case study for CuspAI comes from a collaboration with Finnish chemicals company Kemira.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• Continued reporting by Chemistry World as more details emerge