Mark Zuckerberg says researchers at his philanthropy don't want more lab space or head count: 'They just want GPUs'

""We are not expanding a lot of square footage, per se, but we're expanding our compute," Chan said on an episode of " The a16Z Podcast" that aired November 6, when talking about their investment in Biohub, a collection of biology labs the philanthropy has backed since 2016. "The researchers, they don't want employees working for them, they don't want space, they just want GPUs," Zuckerberg added. "In a sense, that's new lab space. It's much more expensive than wet lab space," said Chan, who is a pediatrician by training."

"Biohub said in its announcement that it will increase its compute capacity to 10,000 GPUs by 2028. Chan said on the episode that CZI currently has 1,000 GPUs in its cluster and similarly mentioned plans to get to "the 10,000 range.""

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is shifting its philanthropy toward AI-driven science and prioritizing compute capacity over expanding physical lab space. CZI plans to grow GPU resources from about 1,000 GPUs currently to roughly 10,000 GPUs, targeting that scale by 2028 to support Biohub and related research. Biohub is partnering with EvolutionaryScale to apply AI to disease research, while CZI is adding additional Biohub sites and establishing a central AI team. Researchers are being provisioned with GPU clusters rather than more personnel or wet-lab square footage, and CZI views high-performance compute as the new, costly form of laboratory infrastructure.

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