CuspAI and A*STAR partner to accelerate AI-driven materials discovery in Singapore
Source: Semiconductor Digest
A*STAR and UK-based AI materials science company CuspAI have launched a five-year partnership to accelerate the discovery and validation of new materials for semiconductors, carbon capture, and advanced electronics. The collaboration involves A*STAR's Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, which houses Southeast Asia's first fully autonomous materials lab for metal-organic frameworks.
Singapore's research ecosystem just gained a significant partner in the race to discover new materials. A*STAR, the country's lead public sector R&D agency, has entered a five-year, multi-programme partnership with CuspAI, a frontier AI materials science company based in Cambridge, UK, to accelerate the discovery and experimental validation of advanced materials.
The collaboration spans semiconductors, carbon capture, and advanced electronics, with the first discovery project already under way. CuspAI brings its cutting-edge AI-driven materials discovery platform, while A*STAR's Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) contributes deep domain expertise and autonomous laboratory capabilities. A*STAR's Institute of Advanced Intelligence and Computing (IAIC) is also involved in several projects across the three target sectors.
A*STAR IMRE houses Southeast Asia's first fully autonomous materials lab for Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), connecting AI-driven computational design with automated systems that execute experiments at high throughput. This is a crucial capability — the gap between computationally designing a material and physically synthesising it remains one of the biggest bottlenecks in materials science globally. The autonomous lab closes that loop, enabling faster iteration between design, synthesis, and testing.
CuspAI has also established an office in Singapore to support the partnership and serve additional customers across Asia-Pacific. The research agenda is designed to be industry-driven, anchored in real problem statements from partnering startups and multinationals rather than theoretical exercises.
Why it matters for Singapore: Advanced materials underpin next-generation semiconductors, energy storage, and carbon capture — all areas where Singapore has strategic research interests. For a small, resource-constrained city-state, investing in AI-accelerated materials discovery is a force multiplier: it allows the research community to explore vastly more design space than traditional trial-and-error methods permit. The autonomous lab capability at IMRE positions Singapore as a regional hub for AI-driven materials innovation, and CuspAI's decision to establish an APAC office here signals that the ecosystem is attracting serious deep-tech partnerships.
