Biomap, a biotechnology start-up co-founded by Baidu’s Robin Li Yanhong and backed by the Hong Kong government, claims it has outpaced Alphabet’s AlphaFold in commercialising AI foundation models for drug discovery.

According to co-founder and CEO Wei Liu, who previously led Baidu Ventures, multinational pharmaceutical firms now see the technological gap between Biomap and AlphaFold ‘reversing’ in Biomap’s favour.

AlphaFold, created by London-based DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google’s parent Alphabet, is regarded as the global leader in applying AI to predict molecular structures and interactions for drug discovery.

Biomap belongs to a rising wave of Chinese players—from start-ups to tech giants such as TikTok owner ByteDance—seeking to challenge AlphaFold in this fast-moving field.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post