An AI startup valued at 7 billion yuan after just three months of establishment has suddenly become popular overnight and will cooperate with OpenAI.

On August 12, according to Zhidx, foreign media Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Periodic Labs, an AI materials startup founded by former executives of OpenAI and Google DeepMind, is set to secure $200 million (approximately RMB 1.43 billion) in financing. OpenAI is expected to participate in this round of financing.

The report mentioned that well - known venture capital firm a16z has agreed to lead the $200 million (approximately RMB 1.43 billion) financing round for Periodic Labs. Previously, OpenAI agreed to lead the startup's new financing, but later backed off as a16z said it could provide more resources. People familiar with the matter added that OpenAI is still expected to participate in this round of financing and may cooperate with Periodic Labs.

People familiar with the matter revealed that the startup has only been established for three months, and a16z has set its pre - investment valuation at $1 billion (approximately RMB 7.18 billion), potentially catapulting it to unicorn status.

Periodic Labs was co - founded by Liam Fedus, a former vice - president of research at OpenAI and one of the main contributors to ChatGPT, and Ekin Dogus Cubuk, the head of the chemistry and materials science team at Google DeepMind. It focuses on AI - based materials discovery.

Currently, there is not much information on Periodic Labs' official website. The company first came into the public eye in a report by foreign media The Information in May this year.

Report by The Information in May this year

Among them, Fedus is one of the main contributors to ChatGPT. He joined OpenAI in 2022 and announced his departure in March this year. During his tenure at OpenAI, Fedus led the development of OpenAI's o1 inference model and also served as the head of the post - training team, responsible for improving AI models. Before joining OpenAI, Fedus also worked as a research scientist at Google Brain.

Fedus' LinkedIn profile - Work experience

Academically, he obtained a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Cambridge in 2009, another bachelor's degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010, a master's degree in elementary particle physics from the University of California, San Diego in 2016, and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Montreal in 2017.

Fedus' LinkedIn profile - Education experience

In a tweet announcing his departure from OpenAI, Fedus said that he is excited about AI for Science, which is also one of the key strategic areas for OpenAI to achieve AGI. In the future, OpenAI will cooperate with his new company.

The other founder, Ekin Dogus Cubuk, is the head of the chemistry and materials science team at Google DeepMind.

In November 2023, a study Cubuk participated in was published in the top academic journal Nature. The AI tool GNoME developed by his team discovered 2.2 million new crystals, including 380,000 stable materials that could power future technologies. As a result, the number of technologically feasible materials known to humanity has increased significantly.

Cubuk's LinkedIn profile - Work experience

In 2012, Cubuk obtained a master of arts degree from Harvard University. In 2016, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in materials and condensed matter physics from Harvard University, with a minor in computational science.

Cubuk's LinkedIn profile - Education experience

According to information obtained by foreign media The Information, the newly established startup Periodic Labs mainly uses AI to discover new materials.

According to The Information, Periodic Labs will build a "ChatGPT for materials science", using AI to discover, analyze, and manufacture new compounds. It is researching magnetic and ceramic materials that can be used as semiconductors or superconductors in space technology, such as increasing the temperature of materials to transmit energy more efficiently.

The new financing will be used to acquire chips to train models for exploration and discovery. The same set of information also shows that the company also plans to set up a research laboratory in the San Francisco area.

Periodic Labs' official website

Conclusion: Investors Favor Startups Founded by Former OpenAI Employees

Recently, there has been a large - scale exodus from OpenAI. In addition to Periodic Labs mentioned above, in June this year, three OpenAI employees left to found Applied Compute, which focuses on the field of reinforcement learning, and received investment from Benchmark, valuing the company at $100 million, much higher than the valuations of other early - stage startups.

It can be seen that, on the one hand, startups founded by former OpenAI employees and other AI experts have become the favorites of investors; on the other hand, large technology companies are trying to retain employees with huge salaries worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The talent war in Silicon Valley is still raging, and the value of former OpenAI employees continues to rise.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Zhidx" (ID: zhidxcom). Author: Cheng Qian, Editor: Yun Peng. It is published by 36Kr with permission.