Warp Sciences is building robotic labs for preclinical research in the US
Kevin Williams, founder of Warp Sciences, said the company is building robotic laboratories in the US and using AI and robotics to help accelerate the discovery of new medicines. Williams said Warp is creating a preclinical contract research organization (CRO), not developing its own drugs: it is building infrastructure for other drug developers.
Williams gave two reasons for the effort. First, automation could enable more experiments, including around-the-clock lab operations, and generate large datasets for training AI models in science. Second, he said scientific and pharmaceutical capabilities need to be brought back to the US. In his assessment, substantial parts of drug-development programs take place in China; he likened this to the relocation of manufacturing abroad and warned that abandoning today’s manufacturing can leave a country locked out of future industries. He cited Andy Grove’s statement about that risk.
Williams described the optimization of a potential drug as a process that can take 3 to 5 years: researchers modify a molecule to improve its potency and solubility and reduce its toxicity. He said this stage is often outsourced to China and that Warp aims to bring such work back to the US using AI and robotics. He added that cost, rather than local opposition to laboratories, was the main factor behind moving this research abroad.
Williams said there is already a large market for US-based services: billions of dollars are currently going to overseas providers, and customers would prefer to conduct research in the US, where, he said, intellectual-property protections are stronger. He expects demand to grow, including as frontier AI labs and biotech startups become more involved.
The founder said Warp will combine purchasing existing robotics solutions with building its own. However, he stressed that not everything needed is available to buy, so the company is building from the ground up and vertically integrating. Its team includes chemists, robotics specialists, mechanical engineers, and AI researchers. This describes the company’s strategy and intentions; it does not establish that all laboratory capabilities are already operational.
The hosts asked whether biology would advance more slowly than software because experiments take longer. Williams replied that AI is already remaking software engineering and making progress in mathematics, but comparable mastery has not yet been achieved in the physical sciences, chemistry, and biology. He offered this as an explanation of the difference, not as a quantitative forecast of timelines.