Orbital Industries has announced an agreement with BASF Environmental Catalyst and Metal Solutions to license CurieOS, its AI platform for materials discovery. BASF will deploy the platform to advance catalyst innovation for automotive emissions applications. Traditional materials discovery requires time-consuming laboratory experiments, taking weeks per formulation and years per campaign. CurieOS accelerates this by using AI to identify promising materials before lab synthesis begins. The platform's core tool, Orb, is an AI-accelerated simulation model predicting properties of entirely new materials. It can simulate 100,000 atoms on a single GPU and runs ten times faster than competing alternatives from Microsoft and Meta, transforming week-long quantum simulations into brief computations. The agreement addresses the automotive sector's need to accelerate development amid tightening emissions regulations and evolving powertrain technologies.

Orbital Industries, a startup using AI to design advanced materials, has raised $50 million in a Series B round led by Plural. Nvidia's venture arm Nventures joined alongside existing investors Radical Ventures, Compound and Fly Ventures. The London and San Francisco-based company is developing materials for the data centre industry, including a PFAS-free liquid coolant for GPU racks. Unlike competitors that license intellectual property, Orbital sells materials directly and optimises manufacturing using AI. The company's core AI model, Orb, can simulate 100,000 atoms on a single GPU and runs roughly 10 times faster than alternatives. Orbital's cooling fluid, paired with a refrigeration system, is designed to ship with next-generation GPUs in 2027. CEO Jonathan Godwin said this would be the first AI-designed molecule to reach commercial market in any industry.