Bezos uses AI to search for the next silicon Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has made another investment in an AI company. This time, his bet is: Can AI help humanity find the next "silicon"? On July 20, UK-based AI materials firm CuspAI announced the completion of a $450 million Series B financing, valuing the company at $2.6 billion. This round of financing was led by Kleiner Perkins and New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The investors include Bezos Expeditions, the investment arm of Jeff Bezos, the UK government-backed sovereign AI fund, as well as institutions such as AMD Ventures and Samsung Ventures. A $2.6 billion valuation is not unprecedented among AI-native companies, but it is very prominent for companies in the vertical scientific field, and CuspAI was founded less than two years ago. If the mainstream AI competition revolves around large models and Agents, CuspAI represents another route: Can AI move from processing existing information to helping humans discover the unknown? Humanity has been searching for the next material If the development of industrial civilization is condensed into one sentence, it is like a history of constantly searching for new materials. Bronze ushered in the Bronze Age, steel supported the Industrial Revolution, silicon created computers, and lithium promoted the development of new energy vehicles. Almost every major industrial transformation is supported by a key material behind it. Today, humanity is still searching for the next "silicon". Over the past few decades, the semiconductor industry has continuously reduced transistor sizes relying on silicon, which has continuously improved computer performance. However, as the manufacturing process gradually approaches the physical limit, the industry is increasingly turning its attention to new semiconductor materials, interconnection materials and advanced packaging, hoping to find the next breakthrough. The new energy industry is also facing similar problems. Compared