Bristol Myers Squibb is buying Nvidia's newest-generation computing system to support its use of artificial intelligence across drug discovery and development.
The drugmaker said it will be the first life sciences company to buy an Nvidia DGX SuperPOD based on the Vera Rubin architecture.
"Maybe before we could do 10 and now we can do dozens," Robert Plenge, chief research officer at Bristol Myers, said, describing how the extra compute will expand the number of candidate molecules the company can evaluate early.
Financial terms were not disclosed, and the purchase builds on a smaller SuperPOD the company previously bought that BMS executives said is two or three generations behind Vera Rubin.
Plenge said AI tools are already cutting the time to make medicines for trials by 20% to 30% and that gain could reach 50% in coming years.
He added that one experimental sickle cell treatment now in early clinical development likely would not have been discovered without AI-enabled research.
Greg Meyers, the company's chief digital and technology officer, said the investment responds to rapidly growing compute demands as Bristol deploys larger AI models across its research organisation and uses AI in all small-molecule and most large-molecule programs.
Meyers said the Vera Rubin-based SuperPOD will be more energy efficient, delivering roughly ten times more compute capacity per watt and lowering the electricity bill for hosted workloads.
