Valthos builds next-generation biodefense. Of all AI applications, biotechnology has the highest upside and most catastrophic downside. Heroes at the frontlines of biodefense are working every day to protect the world against the worst case. But the pace of biotech is against them: more powerful methods to design biological systems, with near-universal access, open up an increasing surface area of threats. In this new world, the only way forward is to be faster. So we set out to build the tech stack for biodefense. Our team of computational biologists and software engineers applies frontier AI to identify biological threats and update medical countermeasures in real-time. We are backed by $30M from @OpenAI, @Lux_Capital, @foundersfund and others including @Definition_Cap. We are actively hiring engineers to join in the mission - if that sounds like you, get in touch.

Members of our technical team will be at @icmlconf in Seoul from July 6-11! We are excited to meet ML Research Engineers, ML Researchers, and Computational Biologists who are interested in developing frontier AI systems for biodefense. If you'll be at ICML and want to chat, please fill out the form here: lnkd.in/eSZg3GBh

Advancing biological resilience requires partnering with people on the frontlines of both policy and technology. At Valthos, we are thrilled to continue working with OpenAI to shorten the time from threat detection to medical countermeasure response.

A very important and necessary effort in biodefense!

One of the greatest opportunities in AI safety and security is the chance to help support the creation of new industry verticals that help maximize the benefits and minimize the risks. The technology is moving fast. One of the best ways to keep up is with more technology, more research, more startups and more entrepreneurship. An industrial ecosystem of builders, companies and solutions further democratizes AI to provide broad resilience, and ensures the US continues to lead as AI increasingly powers everything around us. As AI and biotech rapidly advance, biodefense is one of those verticals. We couldn’t be more excited to back @ValthosTech @kath_mcmahon and their team of ex-Palantir and ex-Deepmind engineers and operators, and world class computational biologists from the @broadinstitute and @arcinstitute. They are pushing the frontier of protection and defense in one of the most strategic intersections of multiple world-changing technologies, and with the team to do it. Also excited to partner with @foundersfund @Lux_Capital @Definition_Cap on this. Looking forward to more.

AI is set to help unlock biology at unprecedented speed, and we need this acceleration to yield more cures than threats Proud to back @kath_mcmahon and @ValthosTech to redefine biodefense for the AI era !

LFG - biology is the threat model I'm most worried that our world is vulnerable to in the near term - super excited for Tess and co to tilt the offence/defence scales back

Spent three years looking for a team in Biodefense to invest in. But never found one. So we built it ourselves. Valthos builds next-generation biodefense. As AI and biotech rapidly advance, we're approaching near-universal access to tools with the potential to cure humanity or make biological weapons. We have a short period of time to ensure that our capabilities to protect advance faster than the threats we face. At Valthos, we apply frontier methods to identify threats and compress the time from a biological sequence to validated medical countermeasures. Excited to share more with you all soon. Grateful to start Valthos with $30M in backing from @OpenAI @Lux_Capital @foundersfund, and many others incl. @Definition_Cap @topology_vc We are actively hiring - if you know engineers interested in solving this mission, reach out contact@valthos.com.

Really great and important initiative - i criticize OAI when I believe they are straying from their mission but this is an example of an area where they are head and shoulders above many of their peers and we need far more programs like this

One of our greatest risks is AI-enabled biological threats. As models advances, it’s becoming easier to design a weapon than a cure. Proud to back @ValthosTech — @kath_mcmahon, @velvetatom, and team advancing America’s speed and ability to design precision therapeutics 🧬⚛️ 🚀

Excited that such a great team is working on this. Addressing an ever-expanding attack surface will be a critical to building a secure AI-enabled bioeconomy. If this interests you, definitely reach out to the @ValthosTech team — there’s no time like the present!

If you work within AI x Bio, if you have pre-/post-training experience for LLMs, if you like distributed infrastructure/deployment, if you appreciate scaling compute and algorithms, or if this just sounds interesting - please reach out! My inbox is wide open. (2/2)

The ability to anticipate and act on the trajectory of natural and even man-made biological threats is a critical defense capability, and AI advancements only make it even more so. (1/2)

Building capacity for biodefense is critical; this is the kind of thing that makes me proud to be at OpenAI.

I don’t post much on X but this is an absolute must-read from @ValthosTech - a brilliant team tackling one of the biggest risks of AI to humanity Congratulations on the funding - much work to do

Super excited for OpenAI to supporting growth of AI safety ecosystem -- in this case bio-defense.

I’ll be on @tbpn at 4:05 ET / 1:05 PT to chat about @ValthosTech and what we’re building for American biodefense! 🇺🇸🇺🇸

Years of working on AI programmable biology left me convinced: capabilities are racing ahead, and so are risks. Valthos started because we need better defenses. I joined at formation last year as the first hire, and grateful to be tackling this alongside a world-class team.

I'm thrilled to be an investor in Valthos: @kath_mcmahon and @velvetatom have built out a wonderful team of operators and researchers tackling some of the most technically and societally important problems in Bio x AI. They are growing the team, please reach out!

Totally agree. Excited to see more biodefense / biosecurity companies. Congrats @ValthosTech on the launch!

Announcing Lux latest investment and creation.... BIODEFENSE @ValthosTech —co-founded by Lux's @velvetatom Tess Van Stekelenburg led by brilliant ex Palantir @kath_mcmahon