Isomorphic wants $5b at a $50b valuation

I couldn't skip this one, because a $50b valuation for a company that hasn't put a drug into a human yet is the kind of number that makes me stop scrolling.

Isomorphic Labs, the DeepMind spinout founded by Demis Hassabis, is reportedly in talks to raise $5b at that $50b valuation, and Bloomberg says it isn't final so the terms could still move. Early talk was a $40b-or-more valuation, so this is the top end of that. If it closes, total external funding lands around $7.7b in under two years, after a $600m first round in March 2025 led by Thrive Capital, GV and Alphabet, and a $2.1b Series B in May led by Thrive. No valuation was disclosed for that May round, so there's nothing to compare the new number against.

Next to peers it looks enormous. Chai Discovery raised $400m at a $3.8b valuation in July, so Isomorphic is around 13x that, and Basecamp Research raised $140m at an $800m valuation in September, which makes Isomorphic over 60x bigger. Thrive led both of Isomorphic's rounds and also invested in Chai, so at least one investor is hedging across the field. Grand View Research puts the AI in drug discovery market at $13.8b by 2033, and a single company at $50b would be about 3.6x that.

What it does have is real. There's the IsoDDE design engine, in-house programmes in oncology and immune disorders, and partnerships with Eli Lilly and Novartis worth up to $1.7b and $1.2b in milestones, plus Johnson & Johnson, who joined in January 2026 on undisclosed terms. Milestones only pay out if development goals are hit though, so they're not cash in the bank. Hassabis expects first clinical trials to start by the end of December, and there was already a delay in 2025, so another slip would leave the valuation resting on partnerships and technical claims nobody has validated.

I'd want to know who is actually putting the new $5b in and whether the $50b includes it.

Source: Tech Funding News, Report: Isomorphic Labs in talks to raise $5B at $50B valuation