Top OpenAI, Google Brain researchers set off a $300M VC frenzy for their startup Periodic Labs 

Periodic Labs, a new startup from one of OpenAI’s most respected researchers, Liam Fedus, and his former Google Brain colleague, Ekin Dogus Cubuk, came out of stealth last month with a massive $300 million seed round. It was led by Felicis and included a who’s who of angels and other top VCs.

The startup started when Fedus had a conversation with Cubuk (whose friends call him “Doge”) about seven months ago. Cubuk was one of Google Brain’s principal researchers in machine learning and materials science. After Silicon Valley spent endless hours thinking about how GenAI would revolutionize scientific discovery, they decided the pieces were finally in place to make this a reality. Or at least to find a startup that tried.

“A few things have happened in LLM, in experimental science and in simulations that made this the right time,” Cubuk told TechCrunch.

First, he said, robotic arms that can handle powder synthesis — the process of mixing and creating new materials — had recently proven their reliability. On the other hand, machine learning simulations had become efficient and accurate enough to model complex physical systems, such as those needed to develop new materials.

And third, LLMs now had powerful reasoning skills – thanks in part to the work of Fedus and his team at OpenAI. Fedus was one of the small teams that created ChatGPT in the beginning and led OpenAI’s all-important post-training team, which refines models after their initial development.

All told, the picture was clear: a simulation could theoretically discover new compounds, a robot could mix the materials, and an LLM could analyze the results and suggest course corrections. AI automated materials science was ready to be built.

Cubuk was even one of the researchers who published a groundbreaking article in 2023 documenting a precursor to Google research project. The team built a fully automated, robot-powered laboratory and created 41 new compounds based on recipes suggested by language models.

Equally important, the founders realized that even failed experiments would be valuable to their new startup, because data is the lifeblood of AI. AI science provided an entirely new source for real-world training and post-training data. This, the founders believe, could upend the existing scientific motivation system, which is focused on success and not research, rewarded through paper publications and subsidies.

“Making contact with reality, bringing experiments into the world [AI] loop – we feel like this is the next frontier,” Fedus told TechCrunch.

Felicis wins the deal; OpenAI does not invest

After that conversation with Cubuk, Fedus went to the powers that be at OpenAI to share his resignation and his plan. He then cheerfully tweeted to the world he left with what seemed like OpenAI’s blessing and investment.

However, that investment was not actually realized. OpenAI is not a supporter of Periodic, the founders confirmed to TechCrunch. And while Fedus declined to say why, they didn’t actually need OpenAI’s money.

Fedus’ tweet set off a wave of VCs courting the company. “There was almost a sense of reverse pitching. One investor even wrote a love letter to Periodic Labs,” Fedus laughed, explaining that neither he nor Cubuk “knew what to think.” Others sent multi-page documents pitching themselves.

But the first call they actually got was from Peter Deng, a former OpenAI colleague who became an investor at top seed company Felicis. (Deng left OpenAI for Felicis in early 2025.)

“Liam is very important within OpenAI, well-liked and an extremely impactful researcher,” Deng told TechCrunch. “When I heard he was leaving, I immediately texted him.”

Deng met Fedus for coffee in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood. Hypnotized by caffeine and enthusiasm, Fedus invited Deng to end their conversation with a walk around the area’s famous hilly terrain. Pitchwalks may be typical of Silicon Valley, but they really happen.

The cold day had turned hot. Deng, wearing a sweater, sweated and scrambled to keep up with the fit and friendly Fedus until the founder said something that “literally stopped me in my tracks,” Deng told TechCrunch. He told Deng that “everyone talks about doing science, but to do science, you actually have to do science,” Deng recalled.

In other words, they had to give AI a fully equipped wet laboratory to try out its ideas in a real, controlled environment.

“The truth about these models is that everything the models know is within the normal distribution. We take a bunch of data and it can just regurgitate what it knows,” Deng said.

To discover something new, you have to test hypotheses.

“And I promised there and then, in the middle of the hills of Noe Valley, to write the check,” Deng says.

Fedus also remembers the moment when Deng asked how he could get involved, and Fedus told him the startup needed money for laptops and a temporary office. And “he said, great, I’ll give you money right now. And it was just a huge vote of confidence.”

But Deng didn’t actually throw his checkbook on the street. Delighted with the deal, he went back to the office and met Felicis’ lawyer, who pointed out that the company could not immediately sign a contract: the company had not yet been incorporated. It didn’t even have a name, let alone a bank account to transfer money. “We were that early,” Deng grins.

Soon they had all those things and all the term sheets they could handle. With the $300 million war chest, Cubuk and Fedus hired more than twenty of the most prestigious AI and scientific talents, such as Alexandre Passos (a creator of o1 and o3); Eric Toberer (a materials scientist who has already made important discoveries in superconductors) and Matt Horton, a creator of two of Microsoft’s GenAI materials science tools. And the list goes on.

Since the team members are all experts in different fields, from AI to physics, each week one of them gives a university-level lecture to the others. “We feel that tight coupling is extremely important,” Cubuk said. He wants everyone to understand all the parts of what they’re building.

Periodic Labs has also already set up its laboratory and is working with experimental data, simulations and testing some predictions. The main initial mission is to find new superconductor materials – possibly a gold mine discovery. Improved superconductors could power the next era of powerful, but less energy-consuming technology.

But the last part – the robots – are not yet operational. “It will take some time to train,” Cubuk said.

Of course, all this is a big swing for the fences. AI-powered or not, scientific discoveries are generally not quick, easy or predictable. While this team of experts has some indications that they will find what they are looking for – or make other discoveries along the way (or simply generate valuable data about their failures), there are no guarantees.

And we know that model makers themselves are moving toward more AI science. Last month, OpenAI VP Kevin Weil said he was launching an OpenAI for Science unit at the company to “build the next great scientific instrument: an AI-powered platform that accelerates scientific discovery.”

As for the investor who wrote the love letter, he didn’t win the deal (although Fedus did say the letter was “very flattering.”) The other seed investors include Andreessen Horowitz, DST, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm NVentures, Accel and angel backers like Jeff Bezos, Elad Gil, Eric Schmidt and Jeff Dean.

Elad Gil will speak about how AI has changed the startup landscape at Disrupt in San Francisco on October 29.