--- title: Matthew McPartlon & Neil Patil, Chai Discovery | daily.dev description: Chai Discovery, an OpenAI-backed biotech startup now valued at $4B, is at the center of a shift in how pharma companies adopt AI tools. The post explains why... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/matthew-mcpartlon-neil-patil-chai-discovery-6ftlonfz0 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Matthew McPartlon & Neil Patil, Chai Discovery | daily.dev og:description: Chai Discovery, an OpenAI-backed biotech startup now valued at $4B, is at the center of a shift in how pharma companies adopt AI tools. The post explains why... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/matthew-mcpartlon-neil-patil-chai-discovery-6ftlonfz0 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/6FtlOnFZ0.png og:image:alt: Matthew McPartlon & Neil Patil, Chai Discovery og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Matthew McPartlon & Neil Patil, Chai Discovery **[Latent Space](https://daily.dev/sources/latentspace)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Chai Discovery, an OpenAI-backed biotech startup now valued at $4B, is at the center of a shift in how pharma companies adopt AI tools. The post explains why pharma companies historically built their own drug pipelines instead of buying AI tools, and what changed: models became good enough to trust for drug design. Chai's binding models enable 'one-shotting' molecules — designing candidates that go straight to the clinic with minimal lab iteration — turning drug discovery into an engineering problem. Since June, Chai has closed deals with Lilly, Novartis, and argenx. The post previews a podcast with cofounder Matt McPartlon and product lead Neil Patil covering protein token value, abstraction levels in models, and how better tech reshapes pharma portfolios. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why did AI drug discovery companies historically build their own drug pipelines instead of selling tools to pharma? Convincing pharma to use an AI tool required proof it worked, which meant having validated drug targets. Once you had those, it was easier to raise money or sell a specific target than to license a tool across many pharma portfolios. The 'build your own drug' path was the only commercially viable route until AI models became good enough for pharma design teams to trust them directly. _Developers and researchers tracking the AI-pharma commercialization shift follow deals like these on daily.dev._ ### What does Chai Discovery mean by 'one-shotting molecules' in drug design? One-shotting molecules means designing drug candidates that are good enough out of the gate to proceed toward the clinic with minimal lab iteration. Chai's binding models predict how well a molecule binds to a target protein, enabling design rather than trial-and-error screening. This compresses iteration cycles and turns drug discovery into an engineering workflow where you hill-climb toward a final candidate computationally. _Teams building at the AI-biology intersection track breakthroughs like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [From OpenAI’s offices to a deal with Eli Lilly — how Chai Discovery became one of the flashiest names in AI drug development](https://daily.dev/posts/from-openai-s-offices-to-a-deal-with-eli-lilly-how-chai-discovery-became-one-of-the-flashiest-name-zk6e3stiu) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Chai Discovery raises $400M as AI drug discovery booms](https://daily.dev/posts/chai-discovery-raises-400m-as-ai-drug-discovery-booms-grocmi3f1) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [OpenAI-backed biotech firm Chai Discovery raises $130M Series B at $1.3B valuation](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-backed-biotech-firm-chai-discovery-raises-130m-series-b-at-1-3b-valuation-0pwxrnaej) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/matthew-mcpartlon-neil-patil-chai-discovery-6ftlonfz0) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Matthew McPartlon & Neil Patil, Chai Discovery","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/matthew-mcpartlon-neil-patil-chai-discovery-6ftlonfz0","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/matthew-mcpartlon-neil-patil-chai-discovery-6ftlonfz0"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T21:06:38.821Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T21:07:08.794Z","description":"Chai Discovery, an OpenAI-backed biotech startup now valued at $4B, is at the center of a shift in how pharma companies adopt AI tools. 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