Scoop: Apple's Former AI Chief John Giannandrea To Join Science Startup CuspAI

The former Apple Intelligence and Siri lead will help the U.K. materials lab hire top talent in the U.S. and plans to advise several other AI startups, sources tell Upstarts.

CuspAI founders Max Welling and CEO Chad Edwards have gathered some of AI’s biggest luminaries as advisors. Credit: CuspAI

The Upshot

Apple’s longtime former AI chief John Giannandrea is joining a science AI startup, CuspAI, to help build out its U.S. operations, Upstarts has learned.

The former boss for efforts including Apple Intelligence, robotics and Siri plans to work part-time with CuspAI, three sources say, leading the Cambridge, U.K.-based materials lab’s efforts to open a Bay Area office with heavyweight AI talent.

The advisor role doesn’t yet have a formal title attached to it, but represents Giannandrea’s first move back into the ecosystem since his news-making retirement from Apple two weeks ago.

Giannandrea and CuspAI both declined to comment.

The move comes as CuspAI, which uses AI to help customers discover new materials, is reported to be raising $200 million or more in funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion. CuspAI previously announced a $100 million Series A in September, on top of a $30 million Seed round in 2024, the year of its public launch.

The reported upcoming round aside, Upstarts understands that CuspAI had raised more than that — more than $200 million total already — through a previously unreported Series A extension. Investors include NEA, Singapore’s Temasek, and the venture arms of Nvidia and Samsung.

What, exactly is CuspAI? And why is Giannandrea joining it, of all startups?

We have some early answers — both from the perspective of the exec known to colleagues as “JG,” and from that of the startup looking to compete in a fast-developing area of AI research — below.

Our analysis on the move, including those answers, is for paid subscribers. Join them as part of our first birthday sale: 25% off a one-year subscription, for a limited time.