Nvidia Boosts AI Drug Discovery with Recursion Investment

Nvidia Invests $50 Million to Accelerate Recursion’s AI Drug Discovery Models

On July 12th, chip designer Nvidia (NVDA.O) announced a substantial investment of $50 million to enhance the training of Recursion’s (RXRX.O) artificial intelligence models for drug discovery. This news caused a remarkable surge of approximately 62% in the shares of the biotech firm.

Recursion, with the guidance of renowned AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, intends to leverage its vast biological and chemical datasets, exceeding an impressive 23,000 terabytes, to train AI models on Nvidia’s cloud platform. As a major beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom, Nvidia plans to potentially license these models to biotech companies via BioNeMo, its generative AI cloud service for drug discovery, introduced earlier this year.

The extent of Nvidia’s involvement with Recursion, including whether they will acquire a stake in the company, remains unclear at this time. Recursion has yet to respond to requests for clarification.

Operating the Recursion OS platform, the biopharma firm provides drug manufacturers with access to crucial datasets required for the development and design of therapeutics.

This investment arrives as Recursion strengthens its commitment to AI-driven drug discovery. In May, the company acquired two other firms in this space for a total of $87.5 million.

Utilizing Nvidia’s software, Recursion intends to support its own drug development pipeline, as well as that of its partners, which currently include Bayer (BAYGn.DE) and Roche (ROG.S).

Recursion is currently conducting human trials on five of its drugs, one of which is in mid-stage trials for the treatment of a neurovascular disease caused by the malformation of small blood vessels in the brain.

Prominent supporters of Recursion include Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investor Mubadala and UK-based investment firm Baillie Gifford & Co.

In late morning trading, Recursion’s shares surged to $10.99 with heavy volumes. If the current gains persist throughout the session, it could mark the company’s most successful day since its listing in 2021.