OpenAI Researcher Leaves to Build AI Drug Discovery Startup, Seeking $200M at $2B Valuation

Key points

• Miles Wang, an OpenAI researcher, is leaving to launch a drug discovery startup, according to four sources with knowledge of his plans.
• The startup is in talks to raise roughly $200 million at a $2 billion valuation, though Wang has disputed those specific figures.
• Venture capital firm Lightspeed is reportedly in discussions to lead the funding round.
• The company may focus on finding new uses for drugs that already exist or that previously failed clinical trials, two sources said.
• Wang joined OpenAI in 2024 after leaving Harvard, where he was studying computer science.

Miles Wang joined OpenAI in 2024 straight from Harvard, where he had been an undergraduate studying computer science. He spent the past two years co-authoring research on how AI models, the technology behind tools like ChatGPT, can speed up scientific discovery. Now, first reported by TechCrunch AI, he is walking out the door to build something of his own.

Wang is in talks to raise roughly $200 million at a $2 billion valuation for a new startup focused on AI-driven drug discovery. Venture firm Lightspeed is reportedly in discussions to lead the round. Wang disputed the reported funding figures and the description of the company but did not provide corrections. Lightspeed did not comment. Talks are ongoing and details could change.

Several other OpenAI researchers are expected to join the new venture.

The startup may focus on a specific, practical corner of drug development: finding new uses for medicines that already exist or that failed earlier clinical trials. That approach matters because drugs already approved by the FDA, the United States Food and Drug Administration which oversees medicine safety, have passed safety testing. Skipping that stage can cut years off the path to patients and revenue.

For ordinary people, that could eventually mean faster access to treatments, particularly for conditions where drug pipelines are thin.

The fundraising discussions land in a crowded, well-funded moment for the field. Chai Discovery, a startup that uses AI to predict how molecules interact so researchers can identify new drug candidates, announced on Tuesday that it raised $400 million at a $3.8 billion valuation. Its co-founder Josh Meier also came through OpenAI. Separately, Isomorphic Labs, which spun out of Google DeepMind, the AI research arm of Alphabet, raised a $2.1 billion Series B funding round in May 2026.

Investors are clearly willing to bet large sums that AI can genuinely shorten the drug discovery process, which traditionally takes over a decade and costs billions of dollars.

What does this mean for patients?

Nothing changes at the pharmacy tomorrow. Drug discovery, even with AI accelerating the early research, still requires years of clinical trials before any new treatment reaches people. What AI tools can do is narrow down the list of promising candidates faster, reducing the time and cost researchers spend on dead ends. If the approach works at scale, patients with rare or neglected conditions could see more options arrive sooner than the current system allows.