Kevin Weil, who led OpenAI for Science, has launched Warp Sciences with $215M led by Lightspeed, valuing it at $865M, Bloomberg reported. It is building an automated lab in the US for a drug development step that pharma companies have long outsourced to Chinese firms such as WuXi AppTec.

Kevin Weil, who led OpenAI’s science unit until he left in April , has launched a startup that uses AI to speed up a key step in drug development, Bloomberg reported . Warp Sciences came out of stealth on Thursday with $215M in funding.

Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, which values Warp at $865M including the new money, according to the company. IVP, Premji Invest and Lux Capital also invested. Angel investors include OpenAI finance chief Sarah Friar, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

Warp won’t discover drugs itself. Once researchers find a promising molecule, they often make hundreds or thousands of versions of it to make it work better and cut side effects.…