Chip designer AMD said Wednesday that it will invest $20 million in Absci, the Vancouver company that aims to use artificial intelligence to develop new drug therapies. Absci hopes artificial intelligence will enable it to move faster to develop protein-based medicines called biologics,

AI drug creation company Absci Corporation (NASDAQ:ABSI) shares are trading higher in premarket on Wednesday after the company entered into a strategic collaboration with Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) to enhance its AI drug discovery capabilities.

Absci will use AMD’s $20 million investment to enhance its AI models. In parallel, the companies will collaborate to develop new hardware and software optimized for the healthcare sector. The effort will place particular emphasis on developing technologies that can advance drug discovery.

The $20 million deal gives the chip supplier a toehold in the life-sciences market, a strategy it plans to replicate in other industries.

Chip maker AMD is investing $20 million in AI drug startup Absci, which will use AMD chips and software for drug development.

AMD's technology will also be used to boost Absci's drug discovery workload, including the company's de novo antibody design models.

Investing.com -- Shares of Absci Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSI) soared 50% following the announcement of a strategic collaboration and a $20 million investment from AMD (NASDAQ: AMD ). The partnership aims to enhance Absci's AI-driven drug discovery capabilities using AMD's Instinct accelerators and ROCm software.