Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Inceptive Nucleics announced a three-year strategic collaboration focused on AI foundation models to support RNAi therapeutic R&D. The deal includes $30 million in cash and equity upfront, with additional payments tied to co-discovered drug milestones across preclinical, regulatory, and commercial success. The agreement is Alnylam’s first discovery-focused AI partnership, with both companies framing the technology as reusable “foundation models of life” intended to accelerate learning across RNAi target and drug-design tasks. Alnylam cited the collaboration’s potential to improve efficiency in discovery and candidate optimization rather than simply adding automation. The structure also underscores how big RNAi platforms are moving to formalize external AI model partnerships as part of their discovery engine.