Ex-OpenAI VP Liam Fedus and DeepMind materials lead Ekin Dogus Cubuk just raised a record-breaking $300M seed for Periodic Labs.

What they're building: Autonomous AI labs that physically synthesize materials and run experiments. Not simulations—real robots mixing compounds, heating materials, discovering superconductors.

Why it matters: AI models trained on internet text hit a wall in physical sciences. Periodic closes the loop between hypothesis and reality using nature as the RL environment.

How it happened:
• Realized frontier models fail at physics/chemistry
• Built team of physicists + top ML researchers
• Landed customers in space, defense, semiconductors
• Raised from a16z, NVIDIA, Bezos, Schmidt

The play: $15T industries untouched by text-only AI.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/30/former-openai-and-deepmind-researchers-raise-whopping-300m-seed-to-automate-science/

Brewed by Startup Beaker.