NVIDIA, Eli Lilly to invest $1B in AI drug discovery lab
NVIDIA and Eli Lilly are joining forces to launch a $1 billion AI-powered drug discovery lab in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Over the next five years, they'll combine their expertise to make finding new medicines faster and smarter with artificial intelligence.
How the lab will work
Set in South San Francisco, the lab will bring together Eli Lilly's science pros and NVIDIA's AI engineers.
They'll build massive data sets and train advanced AI models to speed up how new drugs are discovered.
The doors open early 2026, with everything running by late March.
Tech powering the project
NVIDIA is bringing its BioNeMo platform and Vera Rubin architecture to connect real-world labs with powerful computers for nonstop AI experiments.
Their Omniverse platform will also help automate parts of Eli Lilly's manufacturing process with robotics.
(Isaac and Jetson platforms are used in robotics and automation by other partners.)
Why this matters
NVIDIA's Kimberly Powell described it as "closed-loop discovery" that could change clinical development.
She pointed out this builds on their recent supercomputer packed with over 1,000 Grace Blackwell GPUs.
Eli Lilly's Diogo Rau added that mixing computing power, talent, and data is key for creating custom drug models quickly—something this partnership aims to deliver.