The US government awarded $500 million on Wednesday to startup SandboxAQ to develop new chemicals and materials for domestic semiconductor manufacturing, including alternatives to PFAS and rare earth imports. SandboxAQ, backed by Nvidia, was valued at $5.75 billion in April 2025 and has raised more than $1 billion to date. It is developing a new kind of AI, designed to solve problems in the physical world. Instead of being trained on written human language or computer code, SandboxAQ’s AI systems use the results of real-world experiments and physics-based data to produce models that help scientists solve problems that existing chatbots struggle with.As part of the award, the Commerce Department will take a minority stake in SandboxAQ, the company and a senior department official said. SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary declined to disclose the size of the government stake but told Reuters it does not come with voting rights or a board seat. Do you think that private sector is at a better position to drive USA AI future ?
