Behind AI-for-Science Frenzy, Infrastructure Becomes the Decisive Variable

Physical AI investments are the largest consensus in tech this year. Despite some successful IPOs, AI in pharmaceuticals appears stuck, with a BCG report revealing $60 billion invested globally without any approved drugs. This highlights the significant challenges ahead. Companies like Insilico Medicine face major hurdles following their Hong Kong IPO in 2025, while Google DeepMind has redirected its AI for science efforts into a Gemini-driven general research system. The widening gap between digital hypothesis generation and physical verification indicates that the bottleneck is now data, not compute or algorithms.