AI-Drug Development Company Partners with CBRE to Expand Headquarters

CBRE arranged an expansion of Persist AI’s headquarters in West Sacramento, helping them nearly quadruple their footprint. CBRE represented both sides; Evan Chang, Nellie Cruz and Mark Kol represented the tenant and Ryan DeAngelis represented the landlord.

Persist AI is located within a 164,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility in West Sacramento developed for formulation R&D, commercial GMP manufacturing and automation development. Their headquarters are situated within Sacramento’s science hub providing immediate access to skilled talent from Solano and Contra Costa counties and research institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Davis; and California State University, Sacramento.

“This new space allows us to expand our robotics capabilities, connect our instruments together, and scale up formulation development. Sacramento is a great place to build a robotics lab for its access to amazing talent, growing industries and support of the local government,” said Karthik Raman, CEO of Persist AI.

Persist AI is building an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics lab for drug formulation and chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC). It uses robots to test thousands of formulations with small drug quantities, then builds AI models using data to inform how the formulation is scaled up and manufactured. The Persist AI Cloud Lab even allows scientists to run the robotic lab remotely – creating critical time and resource savings. Large pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies utilize the Persist robotic lab to generate data for training AI models.

Raman continued, “CBRE were great advisors who helped us discover the space, provided clear guidance when negotiating the lease, and were always willing to support us. They have been a partner for several years and we look forward to continuing to work together.”

“We’re pleased to facilitate the expansion of Persist AI, who are making impactful contributions to a key industry. The headquarter expansion will better position them to be at the forefront in drug development and provides a significant advantage to access top talent in the area,” said Chang at CBRE.

Sacramento is among the top 20 markets for life sciences R&D talent, according to CBRE's third annual U.S. Life Sciences Talent Trends report. Between 2017-2022, Sacramento had nearly 20% growth in life sciences graduates. Sacramento is the fourth highest producer of biological and biomedical sciences graduates relative to its industry size, which is about five times that of the San Francisco Bay Area.