Nvidia, Eli Lilly to Invest $1 Billion in AI Lab to Speed Up Drug Discovery

Nvidia Corp. and Eli Lilly & Co. have announced plans to jointly invest up to $1 billion over the next five years to establish a new artificial intelligence lab aimed at accelerating the discovery and development of medicines.

The lab will be located in the San Francisco Bay Area and will bring together Lilly’s scientists with Nvidia’s AI engineers, enabling both teams to collaborate closely on applying advanced computing to drug research. While the companies described the project as a shared investment, they did not disclose how the funding would be split.

Drug discovery is a slow and resource-intensive process, often relying on years of physical experiments conducted by researchers. Nvidia and Lilly believe AI can help remove some of those bottlenecks by automating parts of the workflow, allowing scientists to test more ideas faster.

“Humans are the primary constraint on the speed of labs,” said Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care in its official blog, highlighting the limits of traditional research methods.

The new facility will pair Lilly’s expertise in biology, chemistry, and medicine with Nvidia’s strength in AI, accelerated computing, and infrastructure. Together, the teams plan to build large datasets and powerful AI models to support drug discovery, using Nvidia’s BioNeMo platform.

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said the collaboration reflects the growing role of AI in life sciences. “AI is transforming every industry, and its most profound impact will be in life sciences,” he said, adding that the partnership could change how scientists explore new medicines before moving to physical experiments.

Lilly CEO David A. Ricks stated that combining the company’s scientific expertise with Nvidia’s computing power could fundamentally transform drug development. “By bringing world-class talent together, we’re creating the conditions for breakthroughs that neither company could achieve alone,” he added.

The initial focus will be on creating a continuous learning system that links Lilly’s physical labs with AI-driven computational models, enabling around-the-clock experimentation. The companies also plan to explore AI use in clinical trials, manufacturing, and supply chain operations.

Work at the new lab is expected to begin in South San Francisco early this year.