Biohub expands virtual biology effort to $1.8 billion

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub has expanded its Virtual Biology Initiative into a $1.8 billion effort with federal agencies and private partners to build biological datasets and computing resources for artificial intelligence models designed to predict how cells respond to changes. The total includes funding, existing data, computing capacity and measurement technology, rather than representing new cash alone, Biohub said. The Department of Energy plans to contribute more than $500 million over five years for biological measurement, modeling and computation. The National Institutes of Health will coordinate datasets, repositories and other resources developed through more than $500 million in prior federal investment. Biohub will work with NIH to standardize the material for training models. Google DeepMind, Meta and Isomorphic Labs are collectively investing $300 million in the initiative. Their contribution joins Biohub’s initial $500 million commitment, announced in April 2026. Biohub said $400 million of that earlier commitment supports measurement technologies, while $100 million funds research outside the organization.