Isomorphic Labs in Talks for About $5 Billion in Funding

(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.'s Isomorphic Labs is in talks to raise roughly $5 billion in new funds to support its efforts to use artificial intelligence for drug discovery, according to people familiar with the matter.

The round would value Isomorphic, which spun out of Alphabet's Google DeepMind, at about $50 billion, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public. The financing hasn't closed and details could change, the people said.

Isomorphic did not respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg News previously reported the company was in early talks for a new round at a valuation as high as $50 billion.

London-based Isomorphic was formed in 2021 out of DeepMind with the goal of building upon the lab's breakthrough AlphaFold protein-folding model. It competes with an array of businesses trying to apply the latest AI advances to medicine. That includes OpenAI, which this year released a model for life sciences research.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech conference in London on Monday, Isomorphic president Max Jaderberg said the company's efforts to use AI for faster and more efficient drug discovery are still in preclinical trials. Isomorphic is in its "first innings" as a company, he said.

In January, Isomorphic's Chief Executive Officer Demis Hassabis had said it expected to move into its first clinical trials by the end of 2026.

Isomorphic raised $2.1 billion in a funding round in May led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Alphabet and other investors.