Princeton University announced that Microsoft will bring its new Discovery platform to its New Jersey Artificial Intelligence Hub (NJ AI Hub).
It is an advanced Agentic AI and cloud technology that promises to help scientists and organizations accelerate research and solve complex problems more efficiently. Princeton, Microsoft, CoreWeave and the State of New Jersey are founding partners of the NJ AI Hub.
“Part of the mission of the New Jersey AI Hub is to bring the power of artificial intelligence to the people of New Jersey, for the benefit of the region and its economy,” said Liat Krawczyk, executive director of the NJ AI Hub. “We have here a real opportunity for researchers in academia and industry to have the kind of breakthroughs we’ve all been waiting for with AI.”
The NJ AI Hub, in partnership with Princeton University, will be one of only two ecosystems of its kind in the world where the Discovery platform will be available initially, along with TitletownTech in Wisconsin as part of a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“With this new chapter for our TechSpark partners, we reaffirm our commitment to championing innovation and discovery alongside the brilliant local innovators across Wisconsin and New Jersey,” said Mike Egan, general manager, Microsoft TechSpark. “Together, we look forward to shaping the future of science for everyone.”
“We’re excited for our scholars to use the Microsoft Discovery platform to accelerate their cutting-edge scientific work and be early leaders in this new mode of research,” said Jennifer Rexford, Princeton’s provost and the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering. Rexford also noted the opportunities for researchers from colleges and universities across the state to engage with the new platform and other offerings of the NJ AI Hub.
With Microsoft Discovery, researchers can accelerate scientific discovery by leveraging advanced AI and high-performance computing to analyze vast amounts of data, simulate experiments, and discover new materials or solutions much faster than traditional methods.
In addition, the platform allows teams to collaborate more effectively by bringing together specialized AI agents with human experts to encourage continuous, iterative collaboration.
“New Jersey’s life sciences landscape is world-class,” said Microsoft Executive Vice President Jason Zander. “In bringing Microsoft Discovery to this partnership with the NJ AI Hub, we can accelerate breakthroughs where they matter most. By connecting industry and academic expertise across pharma, biotech and materials science, we’re poised to turn high-impact challenges into solutions faster and at scale.”
In addition to its role as an AI Hub founding partner, Microsoft’s TechSpark program is also active in New Jersey, working to expand AI literacy, support workforce development and foster inclusive innovation across the state.
“New Jersey is modeling how government, industry and academia can come together,” said Krawczyk. “How do you meet every company where they are in their life cycle, whether they are still in the ideation and R&D stage or commercializing and scaling up, or working on market penetration? We want to help any company, regardless of where they are, have an entry point and advancement avenue for their AI journey.”
During the coming months, the NJ AI Hub and Microsoft will collaborate to design a strategic plan for engaging early adopters and innovators tackling complex challenges with significant societal impact. This premium engagement period will prioritize fostering connections within New Jersey’s vibrant university research and laboratory ecosystem — particularly along the Route 1 corridor — while leveraging the full breadth of research talent across the state.
The Hub includes a 6,500-square-foot co-working space in West Windsor that will house a future accelerator, startups, education and workforce development efforts and regular events, such as workshops and panel discussions on AI ethics.
“In the coming weeks, we will work to enable access to Microsoft Discovery for these labs under the private preview,” said Egan, “and as we roll out the Discovery platform availability to the public, we will continue to work with these partners and other researchers and universities to ensure we expand opportunity for scientific discovery through AI.”
