Andreessen Horowitz Leads $200M Investment in Periodic Labs, Valuing Startup at $1B

Andreessen Horowitz is leading a $200 million investment in Periodic Labs, a startup building AI for material science, valuing the company at $1 billion. The investment was previously led by OpenAI, but Periodic Labs opted for Andreessen Horowitz due to more resources offered. The round hasn't closed, and OpenAI is expected to participate and potentially team up with the company. Periodic Labs was founded by former OpenAI VP Liam Fedus and a former DeepMind scientist, with the goal of using AI to study materials and discover new ones.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has agreed to lead a $200 million investment in Periodic Labs, a startup focused on artificial intelligence (AI) for material science. The investment values Periodic Labs at $1 billion before the funding round [1].

The startup was previously led by OpenAI but decided to shift its investment to Andreessen Horowitz due to the latter's ability to offer more resources. OpenAI remains expected to participate in the financing and potentially collaborate with Periodic Labs [1].

Periodic Labs was founded by Liam Fedus, former vice president of research at OpenAI and a key figure in the development of ChatGPT, and Ekin Dogus Cubuk, a former research scientist at Google's DeepMind AI division. The company aims to use AI to study materials and potentially discover new ones.

This investment is part of a broader trend of former OpenAI employees launching their own ventures, drawing comparisons to the "PayPal mafia." Several other OpenAI alumni have started companies like Anthropic and Thinking Machines Lab, which have received significant valuations [1].

Enovix Corporation, another player in the AI-driven materials sector, recently established an R&D Center of Excellence in Hyderabad, India, to accelerate the development of its AI-2 battery platform. This move underscores the growing interest in AI applications for material science and the potential for significant advancements in this field [2].

References:

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-08/ex-openai-deepmind-staffers-set-for-1-5-billion-value-in-andreessen-led-round

[2] https://www.marketscreener.com/news/enovix-corporation-establishes-r-d-center-of-excellence-in-india-to-accelerate-ai-2-platform-devel-ce7c5eddda8af621