Menlo Park — The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, is reshaping its priorities by investing heavily in computing power rather than physical expansion or additional staff. Researchers at the Biohub network have made clear that GPUs, not new employees or lab space, are the critical resource for advancing AI‑powered biology.
Speaking on the a16Z Podcast, Priscilla Chan explained: “We are not expanding a lot of square footage, per se, but we’re expanding our compute.” She described GPUs as the new form of laboratory space—more expensive than traditional wet labs but essential for modern scientific breakthroughs.
Mark Zuckerberg reinforced this point, noting: “The researchers, they don’t want employees working for them, they don’t want space, they just want GPUs.” This reflects a broader shift in research culture, where computational capacity is increasingly seen as the foundation of discovery.
CZI currently operates a cluster of 1,000 GPUs, with plans to scale up to 10,000 by 2028. The organization has also partnered with EvolutionaryScale to integrate AI into disease research, appointing its chief scientist Alex Rives to lead scientific work across the foundation.
While the initiative continues to expand its Biohub network, it has simultaneously narrowed its mission, reducing earlier education and community programs in favor of science‑centered projects. The pivot underscores CZI’s ambition to “go all in on AI‑powered biology,” positioning itself as a leader in computational life sciences.
Ultimately, CZI’s emphasis on GPUs highlights a new paradigm in philanthropy‑driven research. By prioritizing compute over conventional expansion, Zuckerberg and Chan are betting that the future of biology will be written not in larger labs, but in the algorithms and data centers powering discovery.
