Max Welling, a computer science professor at the University of Amsterdam and co-founder of UK-based start-up CuspAI, aims to use AI to achieve breakthroughs in materials discovery in “months, not millennia.” Welling co-founded CuspAI with Chad Edwards in 2024 to create a “search engine” for materials science. The company’s board of advisers includes AI researchers Geoff Hinton and Yann LeCun, former BP chief executive Lord John Browne, and former ASML president Martin van den Brink. This month, CuspAI announced a $450mn second stage venture capital fundraising that valued the company at $2.6bn, led by Kleiner Perkins and NEA, with participation from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. CuspAI also launched its AI Materials Foundry, bringing together more than 50 partners including Nvidia, Meta, Samsung, Hyundai, Henkel, and Tokyo Electron. Welling plans to harness AI to create new materials addressing climate change, the energy transition, and the miniaturisation challenge facing the semiconductor industry.