Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has announced a strategic collaboration with Nvidia to develop an advanced AI-powered supercomputer aimed at revolutionizing drug discovery and reducing development timelines.
Through this initiative, Lilly scientists will leverage Nvidia’s cutting-edge computing infrastructure to train artificial intelligence models on millions of experimental datasets, enhancing the company’s ability to identify and test potential new medicines more efficiently.
The collaboration will also strengthen Lilly TuneLab, the company’s federated AI and machine learning platform, which allows biotech firms to access drug discovery models trained on Lilly’s extensive research data. This privacy-preserving framework enables collaboration without exposing proprietary information from either party.
Beyond drug discovery, the supercomputer—an Nvidia DGX SuperPOD equipped with DGX B300 systems—will be used to optimize other aspects of Lilly’s operations, including drug manufacturing, medical imaging, and enterprise AI applications.
“Lilly is shifting from using AI as a tool to embracing it as a scientific collaborator,” said Thomas Fuchs, the company’s Senior Vice President and Chief AI Officer.
The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly turning to AI to enhance research efficiency, reduce costs, and align with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) efforts to minimize animal testing in the future. Analysts at Jefferies earlier projected that AI-driven R&D spending could reach $30–$40 billion by 2040, underscoring the sector’s growing reliance on advanced computational technologies.
With the new AI supercomputer, Eli Lilly aims to set a new benchmark in pharmaceutical innovation, accelerating the journey from lab to patient.
