Anthropic veterans raise $200M for Mirendil, an AI-for-science startup

The Wall Street Journal reported that Mirendil, a startup founded by former Google and Anthropic researchers Behnam Neyshabur and Harsh Mehta, raised $200 million in seed funding at a $1 billion valuation. The company wants to help scientists build specialized AI models for fields such as medicine and materials science, partly by using AI to accelerate AI research itself. The size of the seed round shows how aggressively investors are backing AI-for-science companies that claim they can compound research progress.

Key details: Published June 24, 2026, Mirendil raised $200 million in seed funding, The reported valuation was $1 billion, The founders previously worked at Google and Anthropic.

Why it matters: A $200 million seed round for AI-for-science shows investors are funding tools that might accelerate model development itself.