OpenAI and Google Vets’ Periodic Labs Seeks $200 Million Investment

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly leading a $200 million investment into startup Periodic Labs.

The agreement values the months-old artificial intelligence (AI) company $1 billion before the investment, Bloomberg News reported Friday (Aug. 8), citing sources familiar with the matter.

One of those sources said that OpenAI had initially agreed to lead the investment, but Periodic Labs concluded that Andreessen Horowitz could provide more resources.

That source said OpenAI is still expected to take part in the funding and could team up with Periodic, which was co-founded by Liam Fedus, OpenAI’s former vice president of research and a key member of the team that launched ChatGPT, the report said.

His co-founder is Ekin Dogus Cubuk, a former research scientist for Google’s DeepMind AI division. Their new company aims to use AI to study materials and potentially discover new ones, the report added.

According to the report, there hasn’t been much information shared about this venture. When Fedus announced he was leaving OpenAI in March, he tweeted about his excitement for AI usage in science, calling it “one of the most strategically important areas” for OpenAI and said the company planned to “invest in and partner” with Periodic Labs.

As Bloomberg notes, Fedus is the latest in a string of OpenAI veterans who have left the startup to launch their own companies. For example, OpenAI rival Anthropic was founded by ex-OpenAI executives Dario and Daniela Amodei. Safe Superintelligence was founded by the company’s former chief scientist.

And Thinking Machines Lab, which was recently valued at $10 billion, was started by Mira Murati, OpenAI’s one-time technology chief.

In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote last week about the race between Amazon and Walmart to see which company can build the smartest AI agent to guide shopping behaviors.

Amazon anticipates that agentic AI customers, autonomous software agents acting on behalf of users, will become a major driver of future growth. These agents are treated as enterprise customers, employing AWS tools to automate retail transactions. CEO Andy Jassy said on an earnings call last month that Amazon is preparing for a day when enterprise AI agents shape demand across the platform.

“Not to be outdone, Walmart is rolling out a unified suite of its own AI ‘super agents’ designed to serve customers, employees, suppliers and developers,” PYMNTS wrote. “The company is counting on AI to fuel its online growth as it aims for eCommerce to make up half of its sales within five years.”

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