Alphabet (GOOGL) and Meta Platforms (META) are buying into AI biology. On Wednesday, October 7, Google DeepMind, Alphabet’s drug discovery unit Isomorphic Labs, and Meta agreed to put a combined $300 million into Biohub’s Virtual Biology Initiative. Biohub is the science group backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan.
With the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health also in, total commitments now reach $1.8 billion.
What the Money Buys
The initiative will measure how cells respond across far more conditions than scientists have ever tested, then use that data to train AI models that predict cell behavior. The first dataset is due in about a year, and the goal is accurate predictive models within five.
The funding breaks down like this:
- Biohub: $500 million, committed in April
- Department of Energy: more than $500 million over five years
- NIH: more than $500 million in earlier federal funding, now being standardized for the project
- Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs, and Meta: $300 million combined
In return, the three companies see the data before the public does. Commercial funders get a one-year embargo on the data they help pay for, while government-funded data has none. “We have to have some incentive for commercial players to be a part of this, and the embargo period creates that,” Biohub head of science Alex Rives said.
$300 Million Is a Rounding Error for Alphabet and Meta
The check is tiny next to what these two already spend. Alphabet spent $68.97 billion on research and development over the last 12 months, and Meta spent $71.63 billion. Together that’s $140.6 billion, or about $385 million a day.
So the entire $300 million commitment is less than one day of their combined research budgets. Both companies have more than doubled R&D since 2021, and Meta now outspends Alphabet.
Capital spending makes the gap even wider. Alphabet spent $91.45 billion on capex in 2025 and Meta spent $69.69 billion, each roughly 3.7 times its 2021 level. Both companies have tied most of that spending to AI data centers.
Biology is a small add-on to that spending. Nothing in this deal moves either company’s earnings.
Why Early Access Is the Real Asset
What the money really buys is time. A one-year embargo on commercially funded datasets gives participating companies a head start in training models before those datasets become public.
That matters most for Isomorphic Labs, which turns AI models into drug candidates. It already has partnerships with Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novartis (NVS), and it raised $600 million from outside investors in March 2025. Better cell data feeds straight into that business.
Alphabet is used to paying for long-dated science. Its Other Bets segment lost $7.52 billion in 2025, up from $4.10 billion in 2023, on revenue that stayed flat at about $1.5 billion.
Next to a loss that size, Alphabet’s share of $300 million barely registers.
What It Means for Alphabet and Meta Stock
I read this as a cheap option for both companies. Neither stock moves on a $300 million commitment. The commercial payoff depends on whether the data improves drug discovery or produces useful AI models. Biohub aims for accurate predictive models within five years, but has not established a commercialization timeline.
The race is crowded, too. Anthropic has set up its own biology wet lab, and the OpenAI Foundation launched a grant program of more than $125 million for biology datasets. Nvidia (NVDA), an initiative technology partner, could benefit from demand for the computing infrastructure used to train these models.
The thing to watch is the first dataset, due in about a year. That’s when the embargo starts to matter.
So what are Alphabet and Meta stock actually worth?
TIKR lets you forecast the future price of any stock in less than a minute. Enter a few assumptions into TIKR’s valuation model and see what Alphabet or Meta stock could be worth as their R&D and AI spending keeps climbing. Start from Wall Street consensus estimates, or adjust the inputs to reflect your own view of the business. It’s free to use.
Value Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms for free→
Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
