Boston-based AI company Flexcompute has secured a strategic investment from Samsung Ventures and Applied Ventures, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, alongside other investors. Announced on October 12, 2026, the investment will support the development of its Physics World Model, an artificial intelligence system designed to predict how products and engineering designs will behave in the real world.
The company has not disclosed the investment amount or other financial terms.
Flexcompute is developing AI technology that combines machine learning with fundamental laws of physics. Its goal is to help engineers predict product performance, test designs and identify potential problems digitally before building physical prototypes.
The company’s technology could support applications across semiconductors, aerospace, automotive, photonics and advanced manufacturing, where accurate physical simulations can help reduce development time and costs.
How Flexcompute’s Physics World Model Works
Unlike conventional AI systems that learn primarily from text, images and existing simulation results, Flexcompute aims to incorporate the laws of physics directly into its models.
The company uses an approach called Tokenized Physics, which combines neural networks with first-principles physics. Its technology is designed to produce predictions that follow physical conservation laws, including when evaluating designs that the model has not previously encountered.
“AI is changing how products are designed, but those products still have to obey the laws of physics,” said the representative of Samsung Ventures. “Flexcompute is building AI that understands those laws, not just the data. We believe the Physics World Model will shape how the next generation of hardware is developed.”
Flexcompute’s team of more than 70 PhDs has developed GPU-based solvers for computational fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, structural mechanics and thermal analysis.
The company says its system can address complex engineering problems that are difficult or time-consuming for traditional simulation methods.
“Every industry is racing to put AI to work on real engineering problems, and the limit is how quickly each one can be validated against the laws of physics,” said Yu Cao, Chief AI Officer of Applied Materials. “Flexcompute has built something unique: simulation fast enough to keep pace with AI and rigorous enough for production decisions. In advanced manufacturing, that means more of the design cycle happens digitally, saving time and cost.”
For example, Flexcompute reports that it modeled warpage in an advanced semiconductor package containing more than 800,000 solder joints, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and 32 optical engines. According to the company, the model handled five billion degrees of freedom and delivered results within 2% of commercial finite-element results in minutes.
Funding to Accelerate AI Research and Engineering
The strategic investment will help Flexcompute advance its research, expand GPU computing capacity and extend its Physics World Model across additional physics domains and complex engineering applications.
Samsung Ventures sees potential in AI systems that understand physical laws and help engineers design the next generation of hardware.
Yu Cao, chief AI officer of Applied Materials, highlighted the importance of validating AI-generated engineering decisions against physical laws. The company believes faster, reliable simulation could allow more of the manufacturing design process to take place digitally.
The investment follows Flexcompute’s previously announced $22 million Series B round in November 2021, led by Coatue Management, with participation from GGV Capital, 3W Investment, WI Harper, River Delta and other investors.
Founded in 2016 by researchers from Stanford University and MIT, Flexcompute has developed technology to accelerate physics simulations for industrial and consumer product design.
“Language models learned the world from text. Hardware is governed by laws, not text, and no amount of data substitutes for them,” said Vera Yang, Co-Founder and President of Flexcompute. “We are building the verification layer between bits and atoms: a Physics World Model any engineer or AI agent can ask whether a design will work, before it is built. Samsung and Applied see what we see: the next leap in AI comes from understanding the physical world.”
Physics Twins Bring AI Into Product Design
Flexcompute makes its technology available to customers through Physics Twins, digital models of their products that engineers and AI agents can use to test and optimize designs before manufacturing begins.
Within this workflow, engineers define objectives and approve results, while AI agents carry out iterations and explore potential design improvements under the constraints of physical laws.
The company says more than 250 organizations use its technology to evaluate and optimize products across industries, including aerospace, automotive, semiconductors, photonics and advanced manufacturing.
With strategic backing from Samsung Ventures and Applied Ventures, Flexcompute aims to advance AI-driven engineering and help companies evaluate increasingly complex designs with greater speed and confidence.
