OpenAI-Backed Chai Discovery Lands $130M to Accelerate AI Molecule Design

The pharmaceutical industry is looking a lot healthier.
OpenAI-backed Chai Discovery has secured $130 million in funding to boost how life-saving medicines are created.
According to the Bloomberg report, the deal, which values the company at $1.3 billion, comes three months after the startup’s last funding round and brings its total financing to $225 million. The Series B financing was co-led by Oak HC/FT and General Catalyst. Investors including Thrive Capital, Menlo Ventures, and OpenAI also participated in the round.
Chai Discovery’s Chai-2 platform has achieved a 16% success rate in creating functional antibodies from scratch—over 100 times better than anything that came before. The implications are staggering: diseases that have stumped researchers for decades could finally meet their match.
The numbers and big pharma
Chai-2’s approach has designed 20 antibodies for 52 different targets in under two weeks, with at least one successful match for half of all targets tested.
Data from last month shows AI-native companies now achieve 80-90% Phase I success rates (where initial human testing begins) versus the 40-65% rates of conventional approaches. Development timelines that once stretched over a decade are compressing to three to six years. The economic change is equally good: the AI pharmaceutical market surged from $1.8 billion in 2023 to a projected $13.1 billion by 2034.
Four weeks ago, the Chai-2 platform successfully designed functional antibodies against six challenging GPCRs, including targets that have frustrated researchers for years.
Diseases and doctors
Chai-2’s AI system generates complete antibody designs, predicting exactly how they’ll bind to disease targets before any lab testing begins.
This means researchers can design therapeutic antibodies with a reasonable level of confidence before spending months in expensive lab work. Think of it as having a crystal ball that shows exactly how a potential drug will behave in the human body—before making it.
Over 86% of designed antibodies show strong developability profiles comparable to existing therapeutic drugs. This addresses one of the biggest bottlenecks in drug development: ensuring designed molecules can actually become safe, effective medicines that reach patients battling cancer, autoimmune diseases, and other devastating conditions.
The funding momentum tells the story of an industry transformation. After venture capital peaked at $1.8 billion across 40+ deals in 2021, this year saw fewer than 20 deals worth about half that amount—making Chai Discovery’s massive raise even more significant.
The race
Naturally, every sector has competition.
Companies like AstraZeneca, Bayer, GSK, Roche, and Moderna are investing billions in AI/ML to boost R&D productivity, while AI-leveraged drug development has become an $18 billion industry.
With Chai-2 now available and potential partners able to reach out directly for access, thousands of researchers worldwide have access to technology that could design treatments for diseases like multiple myeloma, autoimmune disorders, and cancer targets.
It’s not pharma, but Alibaba is driving full-force into conquering the e-commerce sector, expanding its future reach with a renewed push into AI. 
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