October 8, 2026
$1.8B for AI Biology Data: First Dataset Within a Year
Biohub, the US Department of Energy, NIH and partners announced a $1.8B package for AI data in biology on Oct 7: the largest coordinated commitment of its kind. Biohub is putting in $500M, the Department of Energy more than $500M over five years, and Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs and Meta together $300M.
On Apr 29, 2026, Biohub announced its $500M five-year Virtual Biology Initiative. Now the US Department of Energy, Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs and Meta have joined, and the total package has grown to $1.8B.
Already open. Biohub names existing resources as the foundation of the initiative: CELLxGENE, CryoET Data Portal, Tabula Sapiens, OpenCell and Zebrahub. You can open them and take the data today, without waiting for new datasets.
Access to the new data. The datasets will eventually be open, but commercial partners get a year of early exclusivity; work funded by the government is not subject to this limit. Downloads, API and registration are not described yet; access questions go to virtualbiology@biohub.org.
The first new dataset is expected in about a year, by fall 2027.