The Pulse
Tempus Pays $12 Million for Recursion’s TxFM RNA Model
Tempus will license Recursion’s TxFM RNA sequencing model for oncology-related uses while the companies extend their existing data partnership through November 2029.
AI.info Team ·
Tempus will pay Recursion Pharmaceuticals $12 million for a two-year license to its TxFM RNA sequencing model, giving the precision-medicine company access to the model for oncology work, diagnostic applications, clinical applications and internal research.
The agreements were entered into on September 15 and announced by Tempus on September 21. The TxFM license covers a non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable worldwide license. Tempus will pay the fee in two $6 million installments, with the first due when the agreement was executed and the second due on the first anniversary of its effective date.
Recursion will also provide Tempus with access to TxFM while receiving a defined number of de-identified pathology records linked to clinical data during the license term. The financial and usage terms appear in Recursion’s September 15 Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
TxFM Comes With an Oncology-Only License
TxFM is Recursion’s proprietary RNA foundation model. Recursion’s 2025 annual report says the model improves batch correction and multi-dataset integration inside its Recursion OS, helps recover signals from low-read-depth transcriptomic data, and supports consistent mapping of gene-gene and gene-compound relationships.
The license does not give Tempus unrestricted rights to the model. The SEC filing limits permitted use to oncology and bars Tempus from transferring or sublicensing the model. The agreement does allow diagnostic and clinical applications, as well as Tempus’s internal research and development.
Tempus has been building its own biological and multimodal foundation models around clinical, molecular and imaging data. The company said in May that its oncology efforts draw on more than 500 petabytes of data, including more than 45 million de-identified patient journeys and more than 400,000 cancer records containing full genomic, transcriptomic, imaging and clinical information.
A $42 Million Commitment Replaces a Larger Option
The model license accompanies an amendment to the companies’ existing data partnership, first established in 2023. The revised agreement extends the partnership through November 2029 and removes Recursion’s right to terminate it for convenience.
Under the amendment, Recursion’s annual payments to Tempus change from license fees potentially totaling $84 million over the next two years to committed payments totaling $42 million over the next three years. The amended annual fees are $14 million in each of the third, fourth and fifth years of the extended agreement.
At least $4 million of each annual payment must be made in cash. Recursion can pay the balance in cash, shares of its Class A common stock, or a combination of the two, at the company’s election, according to the filing. The amendment also reduces the aggregate number of unique de-identified records Recursion may access during the agreement’s term.
Tempus Links the Deals to Drug Development
Tempus framed the two agreements as an expansion of a relationship centered on combining clinical data with biological modeling. Ryan Fukushima, CEO, Data & Apps at Tempus, said the company was extending the collaboration because of its value and described the two companies’ objective as using emerging technologies to bring better therapeutics to patients.
“We are thrilled to extend our collaboration with Recursion beyond the initial committed period, demonstrating the ongoing value of this partnership,” said Ryan Fukushima, CEO, Data & Apps at Tempus. “We look forward to continuing our work together to use emerging technologies to bring better therapeutics to patients.”
Tempus press release
The arrangement gives Tempus access to a model designed for RNA data while giving Recursion continued access to Tempus’s multimodal clinical and molecular data. Recursion’s filing identifies the data exchange as part of the consideration for the TxFM license, rather than assigning a separate dollar value to those records.
What the Filing Leaves Open
Neither company disclosed how Tempus plans to deploy TxFM in a commercial product or whether the model has already been integrated into a clinical workflow. The filing also does not disclose the number of pathology records Recursion will receive, the model’s architecture or performance results on Tempus data.
For now, the contracts establish a defined commercial exchange: Tempus pays $12 million for limited oncology rights to TxFM, while Recursion commits to three years of payments under the extended data agreement and receives access to additional de-identified pathology and clinical data.