Periodic's Neon: 1,300 H200s and RL beat GPT-6 Astra on materials analysis
LiamFedus · x · 2026-09-16
Liam Fedus (ex-OpenAI VP of Research) shared Periodic's progress on AI-driven materials science with a new model called Neon.
- The team built high-throughput materials labs in Menlo Park to close the loop between experiments and models: labs generate fresh data, models learn from it and help decide what to try next.
- Using only 1,300 H200s plus months of proprietary experimental data, they mid-trained and RL'd an open-source model to surpass GPT-6 Astra on their materials analysis benchmark.
- Focus areas include superconductors, magnets, and semiconductor materials. Blog posts and real lab footage were released alongside.
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