Tempus AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: TEM) has entered into multi-year strategic collaborations with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN) and Pathos AI, Inc. to develop what they aim to be the largest multimodal foundation model in oncology. The partnership, announced on April 23, 2025, includes $200 million in data licensing and model development fees to Tempus.
The three companies will work together to build an advanced AI model capable of gathering biological and clinical insights, discovering novel drug targets, and developing therapeutics for the broader oncology community. Tempus' extensive repository of de-identified oncology data will serve as the foundation for building the model, which will ultimately be shared among all three organizations to advance their individual efforts in improving patient care.
Expanding on Existing Partnerships
This new agreement builds upon the strategic partnership between Tempus and AstraZeneca that was initially established in 2021. The expanded collaboration aims to leverage Tempus' AI-enabled platform and vast repository of multimodal data to advance novel therapeutic programs in oncology on a global scale.
Eric Lefkofsky, Founder and CEO of Tempus, emphasized the transformative potential of this collaboration: "Generative AI and the emergence of large multimodal models is the final catalyst needed to usher in precision medicine in oncology at scale. Tempus has spent the last decade investing billions of dollars into collecting the necessary data needed for a foundation model of this kind to take shape."
AI-Driven Oncology Research
The collaboration represents a significant advancement in the application of artificial intelligence to cancer research and treatment development. By combining Tempus' data resources with the research capabilities of AstraZeneca and Pathos AI, the partners aim to accelerate drug discovery and improve clinical development processes.
Jorge Reis-Filho, Chief AI and Data Scientist for Oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, highlighted the importance of this approach: "Cancer drug discovery and clinical development are being transformed by the ability to analyze vast amounts of rich data using artificial intelligence. We are excited to collaborate with Tempus and Pathos to advance our data and AI-driven R&D strategy through the development of a multimodal oncology foundation model that we believe will accelerate and increase the probability of clinical success across our diverse pipeline."
The Role of Foundation Models in Oncology
Foundation models in healthcare represent a new frontier in medical AI. These large-scale models are trained on diverse datasets and can be adapted to various downstream tasks. In oncology, such models could potentially identify patterns across genomic, clinical, and imaging data that might not be apparent through traditional research methods.
The collaboration aims to create a model that can analyze multiple types of data simultaneously—including genomic sequences, pathology images, clinical notes, and treatment outcomes—to generate insights that could lead to more effective cancer treatments.
Mohamad Makhzoumi, Co-CEO of NEA and Pathos Board Member, expressed optimism about the potential impact: "As artificial intelligence becomes more prominent in drug discovery and development, the opportunity for companies like Pathos to build foundation models that seemed almost unimaginable a few years ago is now taking shape. We couldn't be more excited to collaborate with Tempus and AstraZeneca given the potential of these models to improve patient outcomes."
Implications for Precision Medicine
This collaboration represents a significant step toward realizing the promise of precision medicine in oncology. By combining vast datasets with advanced AI capabilities, the partners aim to develop treatments that are more precisely targeted to individual patients' specific cancer profiles.
The foundation model being developed could potentially identify novel biomarkers, predict treatment responses, and optimize clinical trial designs—all of which could accelerate the development of new cancer therapies and improve outcomes for patients.
For Tempus, which has invested heavily in building its multimodal data library over the past decade, this partnership validates its approach to combining clinical and molecular data with advanced AI tools. The $200 million in licensing and development fees also represents a significant revenue opportunity for the company as it continues to expand its AI-driven healthcare platform.
Future Directions
While specific timelines for the development and deployment of the foundation model have not been disclosed, the multi-year nature of the agreements suggests a long-term commitment to this collaborative approach to oncology research.
As the model is developed and refined, it may eventually enable more personalized treatment approaches, more efficient clinical trials, and potentially the discovery of entirely new classes of cancer therapeutics. The shared access to the model among the three companies also suggests a collaborative approach to advancing cancer research that could benefit the broader oncology community.
