Ginkgo Bioworks and Bayer Extend Multi-Year Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Next Generation Biological Solutions for Agriculture

Rhea-AI Summary

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) announced an extension of its multi-year strategic partnership with Bayer on Oct 31, 2025 to continue joint R&D on agricultural biologicals, including microbial nitrogen fixation. The collaboration, which began in 2017, keeps Bayer's right to commercialize resulting biological products as complements to synthetic fertilizers.

Ginkgo will continue independent partnerships and advance its agricultural biologicals platform, which includes an R&D site in West Sacramento.

Positive

• Partnership extension continues collaboration that began in 2017
• Bayer retains commercialization rights for developed biological products
• Ginkgo's agricultural platform includes a dedicated R&D site in West Sacramento

Negative

• No financial or commercial terms disclosed for the extended partnership

Insights

Agricultural Biotech Strategic Analyst

Extension of Bayer partnership strengthens Ginkgo's ag-bio pipeline and commercialization pathway with an established global partner.

Ginkgo Bioworks and Bayer extended their multi-year strategic partnership on Oct. 31, 2025, continuing collaborative R&D on microbial nitrogen fixation and other agricultural biologicals. The agreement preserves Bayer's right to commercialize resulting biological products as complements to synthetic fertilizers, which creates a clear route to market for technologies discovered on Ginkgo's platform and leverages Bayer's distribution and seeds & traits capabilities.

Key dependencies and risks include continued technical progress on microbial nitrogen fixation, successful scale-up from discovery to field-ready products, and coordination on regulatory and commercialization terms. The announcement states Ginkgo will keep working with other partners, which preserves platform flexibility but may complicate resource prioritization between collaborations.

Watch for concrete milestones over the next 12–36 months: reported technical progress on nitrogen-fixation candidates, field trial results, regulatory filings or approvals, and any commercialization timelines tied to Bayer. These specific items will determine near-term commercial value and dilution of development risk.

BOSTON, Oct. 31, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) today announced that the company has extended its multi-year strategic partnership with Bayer to advance research and development of biological products for agriculture. With the extension of this partnership, which began in 2017, both parties will build on the success of their ongoing collaboration to develop innovative microbial nitrogen fixation. As with the original agreement, Bayer retains the right to commercialize the resulting biological products as a complement to synthetic fertilizers in the coming years.

Bayer continues to be a major partner of Ginkgo Bioworks' expanded agricultural biologicals platform, which includes Ginkgo's Agriculture Biologicals Research & Development site in West Sacramento. Ginkgo's discovery and lead optimization platform supports collaborations in the areas of biological crop protection, nitrogen fixation, and carbon sequestration to identify next-generation technologies that provide clear benefits to growers.

"The future will bring increasingly severe challenges for farmers, and we will best meet these challenges together with leading innovators from around the world through the open innovation ecosystem," said Dr. Mike Graham, Head of R&D at Bayer's Crop Science Division. "When complemented by leading seeds & traits, digital tools, and chemical crop protection, biologicals can help growers achieve the best results in their fields by providing increased options that complement, and provide alternatives to, traditional chemistry-based solutions."

Ginkgo Bioworks aims to develop and advance agricultural biological solutions across crops and geographies through platform technologies that address diverse market needs. Ginkgo Bioworks will continue to work independently with different partners in the discovery and optimization of biological products for agriculture.

"Ginkgo is committed to the power of advanced biological tools to deliver innovative products for growers at the forefront of food production and food security worldwide," said Michael Miille, General Manager of Ginkgo's Agriculture Business Unit. "We look forward to continuing our partnerships with Bayer and other innovative companies, and to bringing on new partners to Ginkgo's agricultural biologicals platform."

About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks builds the tools that make biology easier to engineer for everyone. Ginkgo R&D Solutions delivers customizable R&D packages—such as protein engineering, nucleic acid design, and cell-free systems—giving partners a comprehensive way to accelerate innovation across therapeutics, diagnostics, & manufacturing. Ginkgo Automation sells modular, integrated laboratory automation so scientists can spend their days planning and analyzing experiments rather than pipetting in the lab. Ginkgo Datapoints uses Ginkgo's in-house automation to generate the large lab data sets to power your AI models. Ginkgo Biosecurity is building and deploying the next-generation infrastructure and technologies that global leaders need to predict, detect, and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com and ginkgobiosecurity.com, read our blog, or follow us on social media channels such as X (@Ginkgo and @Ginkgo_Biosec), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks), Threads (@GinkgoBioworks), or LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the capabilities and potential success of the partnership and Ginkgo's cell programming platform. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) our ability to realize near-term and long-term cost savings associated with our site consolidation plans, including the ability to terminate leases or find sub-lease tenants for unused facilities, (ii) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, and changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business, (iii) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and to identify and realize additional business opportunities, including with respect to our solutions and tools offerings, (iv) the risk of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology, (v) the uncertainty regarding the demand for passive monitoring programs and biosecurity services, (vi) changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to advancements in technology, emerging competition and evolution in industry demands, standards and regulations, (vii) the outcome of any pending or potential legal proceedings against Ginkgo, (viii) our ability to realize the expected benefits from and the success of our Foundry platform programs and Codebase assets, (ix) our ability to successfully develop engineered cells, bioprocesses, data packages or other deliverables, (x) the product development, production or manufacturing success of our customers, (xi) our exposure to the volatility and liquidity risks inherent in holding equity interests in other operating companies and other non-cash consideration we may receive for our services, (xii) the potential negative impact on our business of our restructuring or the failure to realize the anticipated savings associated therewith and (xiii) the uncertainty regarding government budgetary priorities and funding allocated to government agencies. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 25, 2025 and other documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com

GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com

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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks

FAQ

What did Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA) announce on October 31, 2025 about Bayer?

Ginkgo announced it extended its multi-year strategic partnership with Bayer to advance agricultural biological R&D, including microbial nitrogen fixation.

When did the Ginkgo–Bayer agricultural partnership originally begin?

The partnership originally began in 2017.

Will Bayer be able to sell products developed under the Ginkgo partnership (DNA)?

Yes. Bayer retains the right to commercialize resulting biological products as complements to synthetic fertilizers.

What areas will the Ginkgo and Bayer collaboration focus on after the extension?

The collaboration will focus on microbial nitrogen fixation and other agricultural biologicals such as crop protection and carbon sequestration.

Does Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA) have an agriculture R&D site mentioned in the announcement?

Yes. The company highlighted its Agriculture Biologicals R&D site in West Sacramento.

Did Ginkgo disclose financial terms or revenue guidance for the extended Bayer partnership?

No. The announcement did not disclose financial terms, revenue guidance, or deal value.