Nvidia-Backed AI Biotech Iambic Up 16% After $150 Million IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Iambic Therapeutics Inc. shares soared 16% in its trading debut after the clinical-stage cancer drugmaker and technology firm raised $150 million in a US initial public offering.

The biotech's shares traded at $18.50 each as of 12:21 p.m. in New York on Thursday after being paused for volatility, above its IPO price of $16 apiece.

The trading gives the firm, which counts Nvidia Corp. as a shareholder, a market value of $877 million, based on the outstanding shares.

The San Diego-based firm uses AI and machine learning to help it discover new treatments, the filing shows. Iambic will use the proceeds from the IPO to advance three early-stage cancer drug candidates.

ARK Investment Management, which is already an investor in Iambic, and billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office had expressed an interest in buying as much as $60 million worth of shares in the offering in aggregate.

The oncology-focused firm is poised to capitalize on investor excitement about the potential for artificial intelligence to speed up biological discoveries.

The San Diego-based firm partnered with Abbvie Inc. to accelerate AI-enabled drug discovery in immunology, neuroscience and oncology, and has relationships with drugmakers such as Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and H. Lundbeck A/S, the filing showed. Iambic also counts Nvidia and AI cloud firm Lambda Inc. among its partners.

The drugmaker had a net loss of $50.1 million on revenue of $12.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2026, versus a net loss of $33.2 million on revenue of $3.9 million for the corresponding period a year before, a previous filing showed.

Iambic has raised $461.8 million from both technology and healthcare-focused investors since the firm was founded in 2019. Catalio Capital Management's stake is expected to fall to 8.9% after the offering from 11%, while Nexus Venture Partners will have 6.8%, down from 8.5%, according to the filing. Nvidia participated in several of Iambic's convertible preferred stock financings, the filing shows.

The offering was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Jefferies Financial Group Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. The company trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol IAM.