Alphabet’s AI drug discovery platform Isomorphic Labs raises $600M from Thrive

Isomorphic Labs, the AI drug-discovery platform that was spun out of Google’s DeepMind in 2021, has raised external capital for the first time. The $600 million round was led by Thrive Capital, with participation from GV and existing investor Alphabet, Google’s parent, it said.    

The funding will accelerate further development of Isomorphic’s AI drug design engine and support the company’s goal of bringing its discovered drugs to clinical trials.

Isomorphic Labs was founded by DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis by leveraging DeepMind’s software for AI drug discovery, including AlphaFold, an AI model that predicts the three-dimensional structures of proteins.

Last year, Isomorphic Labs secured strategic partnerships with Eli Lilly and Novartis, potentially generating up to $3 billion in milestone payments for access to its AI model.

Hassabis told the New York Times that while Isomorphic Labs didn’t need the capital, the extra funding will help the division hire top research scientists.

For their work on AlphaFold, Hassabis and DeepMind researcher John Jumper were among the three scientists who received a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2024.