Chip designer AMD said Wednesday that it will invest $20 million in Absci, the Vancouver company that aims to use artificial intelligence to develop new drug therapies. Absci hopes artificial intelligence will enable it to move faster to develop protein-based medicines called biologics,

The $20 million deal gives the chip supplier a toehold in the life-sciences market, a strategy it plans to replicate in other industries.

AI drug creation company Absci Corporation (NASDAQ:ABSI) shares are trading higher in premarket on Wednesday after the company entered into a strategic collaboration with Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) to enhance its AI drug discovery capabilities.

Absci will use AMD’s $20 million investment to enhance its AI models. In parallel, the companies will collaborate to develop new hardware and software optimized for the healthcare sector. The effort will place particular emphasis on developing technologies that can advance drug discovery.

The stake comes alongside an agreement for Vancouver, Washington-based Absci to use AMD chips and software to power its drug discovery workloads, including a biologic drug design platform using generative AI (genAI) that has attracted alliances with AstraZeneca, MSD, and Almirall.

AMD's technology will also be used to boost Absci's drug discovery workload, including the company's de novo antibody design models.

Chip maker AMD is investing $20 million in AI drug startup Absci, which will use AMD chips and software for drug development.

In a strategic move to expand its footprint in the healthcare sector, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced a $20 million investment in Absci, a Washington-based drug-discovery company. This investment not only highlights AMD’s ambition to diversify its market presence but also emphasizes the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in revolutionizing life sciences.

Investing.com -- Shares of Absci Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSI) soared 50% following the announcement of a strategic collaboration and a $20 million investment from AMD (NASDAQ: AMD ). The partnership aims to enhance Absci's AI-driven drug discovery capabilities using AMD's Instinct accelerators and ROCm software.