Ex-OpenAI science head Kevin Weil raises $215M for drug discovery startup Warp Sciences
What's the deal? Kevin Weil has left OpenAI and raised $215 million to launch Warp Sciences, a drug discovery startup that emerged from stealth on October 22. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the early-stage round, joined by IVP, Lux Capital, and Premji Invest, valuing the company at $865 million before it has shipped a public product.
What's the endgame? Warp Sciences is targeting a specific bottleneck in drug development, using AI to speed up a step that currently takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars before a compound reaches a human trial, according to Bloomberg. That is a narrower, more commercial goal than the open-ended research Weil pursued at OpenAI.
The key hire: Weil spent nearly two years at OpenAI, first as chief product officer running teams behind ChatGPT, Codex, and the OpenAI API, then as head of a unit called OpenAI for Science. That group built GPT-Rosalind, a model trained on chemistry, protein engineering, and genomics; Weil called the initiative an attempt to build "the next great scientific instrument."
Why now? Weil and Sora lead Bill Peebles both left OpenAI on April 17, 2026, when the company folded its science work into its core model, product, and infrastructure teams. An OpenAI spokesperson framed the move as consolidation ahead of a possible IPO, not a verdict on the science bet.
Earlier reporting had Weil seeking around $150 million at a valuation above $750 million. The final round came in heavier on both counts, suggesting investor demand outran his original ask.
What could go wrong? The round is unusually large for a company emerging from stealth, and its scientific focus and path to validated drug candidates remain unknown. Bloomberg's report did not specify a product name or launch date.
The signal: The launch lands amid a surge of investment in AI drug discovery — Isomorphic Labs raised $2.1 billion in May, Chai Discovery raised $400 million this summer, and Enveda raised $311 million in September. Weil joins a growing list of senior lab executives, including former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati at Thinking Machines Lab, who concluded the better trade was to start over with their own cap table. His $865 million valuation on day one is the clearest price yet on what that calculation is worth to venture capital.
Read more: startupfortune.com
Image credit: Enzymlogic
