Former Anthropic researchers are in talks to raise $175 million at a $1 billion valuation for a new startup that aims to conduct AI-driven research and development for scientific fields such as biology and materials science, according to people who have spoken to them.
Andreesseen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins are in talks to co-lead the round, they said. The new company, Mirendil, is the latest research-focused startup, or neolab, to take on the costly and complicated task of developing specialized AI models. While numerous OpenAI, Google and Meta researchers have left those companies to launch such startups in recent years, Anthropic has experienced relatively few departures of research staff.
