Governor Kathy Hochul celebrated Radical AI on Tuesday for opening New York’s first fully autonomous materials science lab at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The company is renovating space in Building 20 to create a cutting-edge headquarters and research facility capable of running around 100 AI-driven experiments daily. The $4 million project, supported by up to $2 million in performance-based tax credits from Empire State Development, is expected to generate 115 high-paying jobs in materials science and AI.
The expansion aligns with New York’s strategy to grow next-generation industries, create high-wage opportunities and strengthen the state’s innovation economy.
“New York is leading the nation in turning cutting-edge research into real-world innovation and good-paying jobs,” Hochul said. “Radical AI’s decision to establish the state’s first fully autonomous materials science laboratory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard strengthens our position as a global hub for artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and deep-tech research. By investing in companies that push the boundaries of science and technology, we’re ensuring the discoveries that drive long-term economic growth are developed, scaled and commercialized in this state.”
Founded in 2024, Radical AI has grown from a small research team into a rapidly scaling company that combines AI, robotics and materials chemistry to accelerate the discovery of next-generation materials.
“Our new facility will run materials experiments at a pace and scale that traditional R&D cannot match, capturing experimental data that makes our AI smarter over time in a continuous data feedback loop," said Radical AI CEO and Co-Founder Joseph Krause. "Our mission is to compress decades of materials discovery into years or months, and we’re grateful to ESD for backing that vision.”
The company currently employs about 34 scientists, engineers and technologists and aims to transform industries including aerospace, energy, infrastructure, defense and advanced manufacturing.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard facility will feature specialized tools, robotics systems, updated safety protocols and infrastructure upgrades to focus exclusively on discovering new inorganic materials. Radical AI’s high-throughput approach is expected to accelerate materials discovery by up to 370 times, creating innovations with applications across multiple industries.
Radical AI has raised $55 million in seed funding led by RTX Ventures with participation from NVIDIA’s NVentures, Noa, Eni, Infinite Capital and AlleyCorp. The company is a Department of Energy partner in the White House Genesis Mission and holds an Air Force AFWERX contract to develop high-entropy alloys for hypersonic flight.
