Miles Wang leaves OpenAI to launch AI drug discovery startup | Ukraine news
A former OpenAI researcher plans a high stakes startup focused on AI driven drug discovery, drawing investor attention and potential colleagues from his former employer.
Miles Wang, an OpenAI researcher, whose work is tied to using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific and biological discoveries, is leaving the company with the intention of launching a startup that focuses on developing AI models for drug discovery. According to four people close to the plans, other OpenAI employees could join the new venture.
According to two sources, Wang is negotiating to raise about $200 million at a valuation of around $2 billion. Lightspeed is discussing the possibility of leading the funding round; negotiations are ongoing, the deal may not be final, and details may change.
Wang himself has disputed the exact funding figures and the startup description, but did not provide precise details. Lightspeed did not respond to a request.
Context of investments in AI for drug discovery
Such talks underscore growing investor interest in applying AI to life sciences. For example, the startup Chai Discovery, which is developing models to predict molecular interactions with the aim of discovering new drugs, announced raising $400 million at a $3.8 billion valuation. Isomorphic Labs, a Google DeepMind spin-off working on AI models for drug discovery, raised a Series B round of $2.1 billion in May.
According to sources, the new startup could focus on developing AI models that help find new uses for existing drugs or medicines that previously failed during trials.
It is known that Miles Wang joined OpenAI in 2024 after leaving Harvard, where he studied for a bachelor’s degree in computer science. At OpenAI he became a co-author of scholarly papers, including research on automating and accelerating scientific discoveries with the help of AI.
Although the negotiations concern specific financial figures, there are no official confirmations from the parties yet. Nevertheless, the trend indicates growing investor interest in using AI to accelerate discoveries in biomedicine, which could alter the pace of developing and bringing new drugs to market.
