Signal A trillion-dollar drugmaker builds a discovery supercomputer with a chip vendor

Summary

Eli Lilly, a drugmaker valued at around one trillion dollars, is building a supercomputer for drug discovery with Nvidia. CB Insights observes that Lilly topped its own pharma AI readiness index in July 2025. The company's chief AI officer, Thomas Fuchs, described Lilly as moving from treating AI as a tool to embracing it as a scientific collaborator. He said the aim is to embed intelligence into every layer of the company's workflows. Lilly also said the partnership will help it develop scientific AI agents that support researchers in planning experiments across digital tools and physical labs. The case illustrates how leading pharma firms are investing in computing power to reshape research.