Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: Drug research will be transformed
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on Wednesday. Photo: Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted Wednesday that drug research will shift from traditional labs to AI platforms, with pharma giants already making the leap.
Why it matters: The industry is betting the pivot could accelerate how fast new drugs reach patients.
Driving the news: Huang — speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos — mentioned the world's first $1 trillion drug company, Eli Lilly, as an example of how the shift will play out.
- "Three years ago, most of their R&D budget, all of their R&D budget, was probably wet labs," Huang said. "Notice the big AI supercomputer that they've invested in, the big AI lab. Increasingly, that R&D budget is going to shift towards AI."
Context: Lilly said in 2025 that it's working with Nvidia to build a supercomputer capable of developing research models, advancing manufacturing techniques and generating "scientific AI agents" that plan experiments
- And the companies announced last week they'll jointly invest up to $1 billion over five years in "talent, infrastructure and compute" to power what they called "a first-of-its-kind AI co-innovation lab."
- "They realize now that AI has made such extraordinary progress in understanding the structure of proteins and the structure of chemicals," Huang said Wednesday of Lilly.
- Lilly reps could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday — but executive VP Diogo Rau said in October that "with purpose-built models and AI, we can set a new scientific standard that accelerates innovation to deliver medicines to more patients, faster."
State of play: Demand is growing for "laboratory informatics" space — where conventional labs are combined with AI tools.
- The space is expected to generate $5.2 billion in annual revenue for landlords by 2030, according to a report in July by George Beaton and Hannah Dwyer of global real estate firm JLL.
- But only 51% of life sciences and pharmaceuticals leaders believe their corporate real estate teams have "a strategy in place for embedding AI," according to the report.
- "In response to these evolving requirements, it is increasingly common to see landlords offer a three-way divide of their leased units : 1/3 for wet lab space, 1/3 for write-up space and 1/3 of flexible space that can easily be fit-out as wet lab, dry lab or office space," according to the report.
The bottom line: AI has been billed for years as an avenue to medical advancements, whether through drug discovery, diagnostics or treatment — but that moment may be disruptive for the pharmaceutical industry.
- "We're going to see some really great, big breakthroughs," Huang said Wednesday.
