Arm CEO says AI will cure cancer in our lifetime

September 8, 2026 at 04:05 AM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas said artificial intelligence will find a cure for cancer that humans cannot in our lifetimes. Haas told the BBC that AI would lead to widespread humanoid robots in the next five years, but that its current rapid growth was being held up by a shortage of chips needed to build data centres.

Key Facts

Rene Haas, CEO of Cambridge-based Arm Holdings, said AI will find a cure for cancer that humans cannot in our lifetimes.
Haas predicted widespread humanoid robots within five years, but said current AI growth is held back by a shortage of chips for data centres.
Arm designs the CPUs used in hundreds of billions of phones, cars, smartwatches and gadgets worldwide.
Earlier this summer, Arm's peak share price made it the most valuable UK-based company in history in cash terms.
Prof Chris Bakal of the Institute of Cancer Research said the future of medical AI belongs to whoever has the right measurements, not the biggest computer.

AI and Cancer Cure

Haas said modelling how a DNA marker is impacted by cancer is currently too complex a problem for humans and computers, but AI will solve it as models and computers improve. He stepped down from the board of AstraZeneca in April and holds a key role in Arm's main owner, Japan-based Softbank, which has investments in tech including OpenAI. Prof Chris Bakal, from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and CEO of Sentinal4D, said the real question is no longer whether we use AI, but what we feed it. Bakal said labs like his train AI on data generated from patient samples, not scraped from the internet, and that such prediction could cut years from developing new treatments.

Robotics and Chip Shortage

Haas said Arm-designed chips will fuel self-learning AI robots in manufacturing, cleaning, security, bridge building and repairs within a decade. He said AI robots can see, learn and be reprogrammed for new tasks, such as a service robot learning to arrange towels or clean dustbins. Haas was sceptical about the idea that chips could be manufactured in the UK in the future.