Alphabet spinoff SandboxAQ has raised more than $300 million to go toward developing AI applications across multiple areas including drug discovery, chemistry and medical devices.
More specifically, the new fund will home in on large quantitative models, which are designed to analyze and generate measurable data.
Fred Alger Management, T. Rowe Price Associates, Mumtalakat, Parkway Venture Capital, Breyer Capital, Rizvi Traverse, S32, US Innovative Technology Fund, Ava Investments, Eric Schmidt, Marc Benioff, David Siegel, Yann LeCun, IQT and other unnamed investors contributed to the fund, according to a Dec. 18 release.
"Large Quantitative Models are the next wave of AI as they provide a powerful ability to solve science and business problems for large industries including aerospace, biopharma, chemicals, defense, energy, finance and more," SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary said in the release.
In 2022, Google’s parent company Alphabet spun off its quantum technology unit to form SandboxAQ. The startup, which grew out of work Alphabet began in 2016, raised $500 million in early 2023.
Later that year, the spinoff signed up AstraZeneca and Sanofi as users of its drug discovery and development tools. The Big Pharmas are part of SandboxAQ’s AQBioSim division, which is designed to accelerate R&D efforts.