
Ginkgo Bioworks, which is building a platform for cell programming and biosecurity, announced the acquisition of key assets of Reverie Labs, which built and used AI/ML tools to accelerate drug discovery. Ginkgo has acquired Reverie's infrastructure and software for training large-scale AI foundation models and four of Reverie's key AI team members will join Ginkgo. The acquisition is intended to strengthen Ginkgo's AI/ML-driven discovery services offering and to accelerate Ginkgo's work to build next-generation biological foundation models.
The Reverie team joining Ginkgo as a part of this transaction (including Reverie's CTO, Ankit Gupta, who will be joining Ginkgo as Head of AI/ML Advancement) will support both the onboarding of Reverie's technology into Ginkgo's growing AI/ML infrastructure and also support the future development and application of AI/ML-based techniques to engineer biology. Ginkgo will incorporate Reverie's models, software, and workflows to advance its infrastructure for AI/ML-driven experimental design. Reverie's generative AI platform for chemistry will also be added into Ginkgo's capabilities to support small molecule programs.
Ginkgo's existing AI/ML-driven efforts include Owl, its tool for AI-guided design. Owl integrates with a full range of computational tools, selected by Ginkgo's enzyme engineering team and proven out over dozens of projects. Last year, Ginkgo also announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to build a generative AI platform for engineering biology and for biosecurity. Additionally, Ginkgo has partnered with Merck to improve its biologic manufacturing, with Pfizer to advance the discovery and development of novel RNA molecules across priority research areas, and with Boehringer Ingelheim to accelerate discovery and development of novel therapeutic molecules to address hard-to-treat diseases.