Isomorphic Labs, the artificial intelligence drug discovery startup spun out of Google DeepMind, is in early talks to raise new funding at a valuation of at least $40 billion, according to people familiar with the effort. One of those people said the round could value the London-based company as high as $50 billion, Bloomberg reported.
The financing has not closed, and the people said the terms could still change. Neither the size of the round nor the investors have been reported. Isomorphic did not respond to a request for comment.
The talks come less than five months after Isomorphic closed a $2.1 billion Series B round in May, led by Thrive Capital — described by Chinese financial outlet 财联社 as the second-largest single financing round in biotech history. That round brought the company's total external funding to $2.7 billion.
The Series B valuation was never disclosed. At the time, chief executive Demis Hassabis said Alphabet had provided a "large part" of the financing but declined to comment on Alphabet's stake or the company's valuation. Alphabet's exact ownership remains unknown.
A Nobel laureate at the helm
Isomorphic was founded in 2021 as a spinout from DeepMind, with the goal of commercializing the lab's AlphaFold protein-folding model. Hassabis, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on AlphaFold, led DeepMind until August, when he moved to a chairman role and became Alphabet's chief scientist while remaining CEO of Isomorphic.
The company says it uses AI to virtually screen and design drug candidate molecules, covering the early stages of drug discovery. In May 2024 it jointly released AlphaFold3 with DeepMind, which predicts the structures and interactions of all life's molecules, and in February 2025 it introduced IsoDDE, its drug design AI model.
Hassabis has publicly stated his aim of compressing the time needed to develop new medicines from years to months.
Partnerships, but no clinical-stage drugs
Isomorphic has announced partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly and Novartis, focused on cancer and immune disorders, and it is also designing and developing drugs in-house. The company's target is to begin first-in-human trials of its AI-designed drugs by the end of 2026; as of July, it was reported to have prepared to start human testing.
Even so, the company has no commercialized drugs — a reality shared across the sector. Few AI drug discovery companies have progressed treatments into clinical trials, and none has yet brought an AI-designed medicine to market.
A valuation of $40 billion to $50 billion would place Isomorphic in the same range as some of the world's established pharmaceutical companies. For comparison, Takeda has a market capitalization of roughly $58 billion, BeiGene about $57.5 billion, and Hengrui Pharma around $46.2 billion — companies with marketed products, sales forces, and billions of dollars in annual revenue.
What is confirmed, and what is not
Confirmed: Isomorphic is in early talks for a new round at a reported valuation floor of $40 billion, with a possible ceiling of $50 billion, roughly five months after a $2.1 billion Series B that lifted its total external funding to $2.7 billion.
Unknown: The round size, the investors involved, the final valuation, and Alphabet's current stake. Isomorphic has not publicly commented, and the people familiar with the talks cautioned that the terms could change before any deal closes.
Awaited: Whether the round closes at the reported valuation, and whether Isomorphic meets its target of beginning first-in-human trials of AI-designed drugs by the end of 2026.
Sources: Bloomberg, via Yahoo Finance and Dealroom; 财联社/科创板日报; 智通财经; 星岛头条.