Lilly and J&J partner with Nvidia to build AI-powered drug discovery systems

Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson have both announced major partnerships with Nvidia to accelerate their AI-powered drug discovery and medical device development efforts. These collaborations represent a significant escalation in Big Pharma’s AI investment race, with Lilly planning to build what it claims will be “the most powerful supercomputer” in the pharmaceutical industry while J&J focuses on creating virtual operating rooms for robotic surgery systems.

What you should know: Both companies are leveraging Nvidia’s computing power and AI platforms to transform different aspects of their operations, though neither disclosed financial terms.

• Lilly aims to create an “AI factory” that will manage the entire lifecycle of its algorithms, from data intake to model training and generating high-volume predictions for drug discovery.
• J&J’s MedTech unit will use Nvidia’s Isaac robot development technology to enhance its MONARCH urology platform with virtual operating room capabilities.

How Lilly’s supercomputer works: The pharmaceutical giant plans to use massive computing power to draw from millions of experiments and train AI models for improved drug discovery.

• The system will help accelerate the development process and shorten the time drug candidates spend in clinical trials.
• Thomas Fuchs, Lilly’s chief AI officer, described the partnership as marking AI’s transition from being a tool to “a scientific collaborator.”
• “We’re opening the door to a new kind of enterprise: one that learns, adapts and improves with every data point,” Fuchs said in a statement.

J&J’s virtual operating room approach: The company will integrate Nvidia’s Isaac technology to create sophisticated simulation capabilities for surgical planning and training.

• Isaac provides simulation and robot learning frameworks, plus a library of AI models for creating robots, robot arms, and other physical AI applications.
• J&J plans to create “high-fidelity digital twins”—detailed computer replicas of real patients—that help medical teams determine how specific devices will function inside patients.
• The technology will enable procedure planning through simulated patient anatomies before actual surgeries begin.

The big picture: The pharmaceutical industry has been dramatically increasing its AI investments, with several billion-dollar deals announced in recent weeks.

• Bristol Myers Squibb committed $2 billion earlier this month to extend its partnership with insitro, a biotech company, using the firm’s AI platform to create stem cell models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
• Takeda invested over $1 billion in a second deal with Nabla Bio to develop AI-driven antibody therapies for multiple undisclosed targets.

Why this matters: These partnerships signal a fundamental shift in how pharmaceutical companies view AI—moving from experimental tools to core infrastructure for drug discovery and medical device development, potentially reshaping the entire industry’s approach to innovation and patient care.