Editorial illustration for Survey: 90% Expect AI to Generate New Work as Spending Doubles
90% Expect AI to Create Jobs as Spending Doubles
Biohub just quadrupled the size of its bet on biology's AI moment. Back in April, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's science nonprofit put $500 million behind the Virtual Biology Initiative, a plan to build AI that can model how a living cell actually behaves. Seven months later, that number is $1.8 billion, with the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, Google DeepMind, and Meta all putting money in.
The goal hasn't changed: a "universal virtual cell" that can predict how a cell reacts to a new drug or genetic tweak before anyone runs a lab test. What's changed is who's paying for the data needed to get there. The NIH is handing over datasets built on more than $500 million in prior federal spending.
The Energy Department is committing another $500 million over five years. DeepMind, Meta, and drug startup Isomorphic Labs are adding $300 million combined, with an agreement to keep whatever data comes out of this private for a year before anyone else gets to see it.
Biohub's head of science, Alex Rives, has a specific idea of what it will take to make these models actually work.
Why this matters
The numbers in this survey tell a story that's gotten ahead of the plumbing. Spending doubling year on year, 90% of respondents expecting AI to generate new work, and yet only 5% have agent controls rolled out enterprise-wide. That gap between ambition and governance is the real headline here, not the dollar figures. We've watched this pattern before with cloud adoption and with early SaaS rollouts: budget moves faster than oversight, and someone eventually pays for that mismatch in a security incident or a compliance mess.
For founders and engineering leads reading this, the lesson isn't "spend more." It's "build the controls before the agents start acting on their own." The Biohub's jump from $500M to $1.8B shows real money chasing AI's next frontier in biology, but that same capital rush is happening inside companies that haven't sorted out who's accountable when an agent makes a bad call. Worth tracking which of these companies closes that 5% gap first, and whether it's the ones spending the most or the ones spending the smartest.
Related Reading
Policy & Regulation Akamai Proposes SAFE Cybersecurity Guidelines for AI Threats
Policy & Regulation After ditching AI fitness apps and a Fitbit, I return to Peloton classes
Policy & Regulation Sony Music, Warner Chappell Sue Anthropic Over "Blatant Theft
From Archives Muse AI Builds Detailed Profiles on User's Friends and Family
From Archives Shopify's Canvas Lets Merchants Build Stores by Chatting With AI
Common Questions Answered
What is the Virtual Biology Initiative and how much funding has it received?
The Virtual Biology Initiative is a plan to build AI that can model how living cells behave, initially funded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's science nonprofit Biohub with $500 million in April. Seven months later, the funding quadrupled to $1.8 billion, with additional support from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, Google DeepMind, and Meta all contributing to the effort.
What is the primary goal of the universal virtual cell project?
The goal is to create a 'universal virtual cell' that can predict how cells behave by using data on billions of cells to advance biology. This project aims to give biology a similar transformative moment that AI has achieved in other fields by leveraging massive datasets and AI modeling capabilities.
What gap exists between AI spending growth and enterprise governance according to the survey?
The survey reveals that while AI spending is doubling year on year and 90% of respondents expect AI to generate new work, only 5% have agent controls rolled out enterprise-wide. This significant gap between ambition and governance represents a mismatch where budget moves faster than oversight, creating potential risks similar to past patterns seen with cloud adoption and early SaaS rollouts.
Which organizations are collaborating on the expanded Biohub funding initiative?
The expanded $1.8 billion funding initiative includes contributions from Biohub (Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's science nonprofit), the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, Google DeepMind, and Meta. This multi-stakeholder approach combines private technology companies with U.S. government agencies to advance AI-driven biological research.
Further Reading
- Google invests millions in Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to create a ‘virtual cell’ - The Verge
- U.S. government, Google join Zuckerberg-backed Biohub in $1.8 billion push for AI biology data - CNBC
- Zuckerberg's Biohub leads a $1.8 billion push to build AI models that predict cell behavior - The Decoder
- Google, Meta, U.S. government join Biohub's $1.8B AI biology initiative - Yahoo Finance
- AI-ready biological data: $1.8 billion global commitment - Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
