Ginkgo offers NSF's X-Labs teams remote time on its Boston robotic lab

Ginkgo's Boston lab is built from Reconfigurable Automation Carts, modular units that combine robotic arms, maglev sample transport and Ginkgo's Catalyst software ^[4]. A remote team working through Ginkgo Cloud Lab can use more than 70 instruments for sample preparation, liquid handling, analysis, storage and incubation ^[5]. In practice, that instrument list is the spec of the offer. A protocol that breaks down into those steps can run in Boston without the team owning a robot.

X-Labs funds teams through milestone-based awards and gives them operational autonomy ^[6]. According to runtimewire.com, the program's teams "may not have the budget or expertise to build a robotic wet lab of their own" ^[19]. I think remote time suits that structure. A team paid against milestones gets little from spending early money on equipment and staff before it knows whether its first design works.

Which teams can use the protein testing depends on the topics NSF opens. The May 2026 round invited proposals on Scientific Instrumentation for Sensing and Imaging and on Quantum Systems: Interconnects and Integrated Photonics ^[7]. In September the agency added Artificial Intelligence for Physical Systems as a new topic and gave an early look at two more, From Sequence to Function and Computation at the Limit of Physics ^[8].

Ginkgo has not disclosed the number of teams that can use the lab, the amount of lab time or testing it will provide, or the contribution's value, according to runtimewire.com ^[10]. A pledge with no stated quantity is hard to oversubscribe. The program itself could invest up to $1.5 billion over its decade ^[6], about $150 million a year if spread evenly ^[17].

The two NSF arrangements use the same hardware in different ways. Under the Programmable Cloud Laboratories Test Bed, the carts and software are expected to go into university nodes ^[9]. Under X-Labs, teams book time on carts that stay in Ginkgo's own Boston facility ^[3].

Ginkgo attributed its 2025 revenue decline to a shift toward larger enterprise customers and to restructuring-related commercial changes. Revenue in both years also included non-cash amounts from the release of deferred revenue ^[13]. Measured in dollars, revenue fell by $56.8 million ^[18]. When announcing those results, founder Jason Kelly said Ginkgo would focus investment on autonomous-lab offerings ^[14]. The company has not disclosed whether it expects the X-Labs arrangement to generate sales ^[15]. The contribution is in-kind, and no cash investment has been reported ^[16].