The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore’s lead public sector research and development (R&D) agency, and CuspAI, the United Kingdom-based artificial intelligence (AI) materials science company, have announced a five-year, multi-program partnership.
The duo said in a statement on Monday that the collaboration aims to accelerate the discovery and experimental validation of new materials across semiconductors, carbon capture, and advanced electronics. The first discovery project is now under way。
CuspAI will bring its cutting-edge AI-driven materials discovery platform whileA*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (A*STAR IMRE) will contribute deep expertise in materials science and autonomous laboratories – co-developing new materials for industry from simulation through to synthesis. This collaboration is a key industry partnership with A*STAR research institutions to accelerate materials innovation from research to industry application.
A*STAR IMRE houses the first fully autonomous materials lab for Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) in Southeast Asia, connecting AI-driven discovery with automated systems to execute experiments at high throughput.
The initiative is designed to be industry-driven, with research anchored in real problem statements from partnering startups and multinationals.
Several projects with A*STAR IMRE and A*STAR Institute of Advanced Intelligence and Computing (A*STAR IAIC) in semiconductors, carbon capture and battery materials are under way.
CuspAI has also established an office in Singapore to support the partnership and serve additional customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
Advanced materials underpin many of the technologies shaping the global economy – from next-generation semiconductors to sustainable energy systems.
Yet the gap between computationally designing a new material and physically making it remains one of the biggest bottlenecks in materials science.
For Singapore, where advanced manufacturing and sustainability are key pillars of the national research agenda, closing this gap is directly relevant to maintaining the country’s industrial and scientific competitiveness.
Together, the partnership between CuspAI and A*STAR will create a more direct connection between computational design, synthesis and testing.
For industry, this means new materials that are designed, validated and optimized for specific performance requirements can reach application faster.
This can reduce the time and cost of development in sectors such as semiconductors, decarbonization and advanced manufacturing.
“A*STAR brings world-class experimental capability across material classes that directly complements our AI platform, enabling us and our partners to realize new materials faster,” said Chad Edwards, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CuspAI.
According to him, materials designed by the firm’s platform for industrial partners can now move directly into synthesis and testing within months, not years.
“That closes the loop from computation to physical proof, which is where real value is created,
“Singapore is also a natural hub for our growing Asia-Pacific customer base, and we are excited to be establishing a permanent presence here,” he added.
Professor Loh Xian Jun, Executive Director of A*STAR IMRE, said Integrating world-class computational capabilities with superior experiment execution is central to how they advance materials research at A*STAR.
“By combining CuspAI’s cutting-edge computational platform with A*STAR IMRE’s deep, world-leading expertise in materials science, we are strengthening our ability to translate research into practical outcomes for industry and deepening Singapore’s capabilities at the forefront of innovation,” he added.
Beyond the initial focus areas, the partnership will also span aerospace and advanced manufacturing, including high-performance alloys and ceramics for extreme environments, as well as next-generation acoustic and photonic materials for high-speed connectivity and power management.
The partnership comes as CuspAI also announces its AI Materials Foundry, a global network to accelerate breakthroughs in materials discovery. A*STAR joins 47 other partners as a founding member.
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