Microsoft unveils Discovery, an agentic R&D platform, and says it found a non-PFAS datacenter coolant in ~200 hours
At Build 2025 (19 May 2025) Microsoft announced Microsoft Discovery, an enterprise agentic AI platform for scientific R&D on Azure. As a showcase, Microsoft said its researchers used the platform's models and HPC simulation to find a novel non-PFAS immersion coolant prototype in about 200 hours and synthesized it in under four months. No paper has been published on the coolant. Discovery reached general availability at Build 2026 (2 June 2026).
Key facts
- Announced at Microsoft Build, 19 May 2025, as an enterprise agentic platform built on Azure with a graph-based knowledge engine
- Coolant case study: ~367,000 candidates screened; a non-PFAS immersion-coolant prototype found in ~200 hours of AI and HPC work, synthesized in under 4 months; Microsoft says measured properties matched predictions (company claim, no peer-reviewed paper)
- General availability announced 2 June 2026 (Aseem Datar), plus a preview desktop Discovery app on GitHub (github.com/microsoft/discovery)
- Named users: Yale Engineering, Georgia Tech, PNNL, Ginkgo Bioworks, GSK, BHP, Syensqo, Wiley; no pricing disclosed
What happened
Microsoft Discovery lets R&D teams run specialised AI agents over their own knowledge, simulation tools and experimental data. At launch Microsoft showed an internal case study. Its models and HPC simulations screened hundreds of thousands of candidate molecules for a PFAS-free immersion coolant for datacenters, the lab synthesized a prototype, and a PC was run submerged in it. A year later, at Build 2026, the platform became generally available and got a local desktop app in preview.
Why it matters
Microsoft Discovery is Microsoft's answer to Google's and Anthropic's AI-for-science products, and a continuation of its earlier battery-electrolyte screening with PNNL. The coolant claim has not been independently verified or published in a peer-reviewed venue.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created
Related events
Sources (5)
- officialAzure blog: Transforming R&D with agentic AI, introducing Microsoft Discovery
- officialAzure blog: Microsoft Discovery general availability and app preview (2 June 2026)
- pressVentureBeat: Microsoft AI discovered a new chemical in 200 hours
- pressPCWorld: Microsoft used AI to invent a safer coolant and dunked a PC in it
- pressRedmondmag: Build 2026, Microsoft Discovery hits GA
id: 2025-05-19-microsoft-discovery · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline