Ginkgo Bioworks Selected by PNNL to Deliver a Modular, High‑Throughput Phenotyping Platform for DOE's M2PC

Rhea-AI Summary

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) was awarded a four-year, up to $47M contract by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's EMSL to co-design, build, and integrate a High‑Throughput Automated Phenotyping Platform (HTP‑APP) for the DOE Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability (M2PC).

The modular HTP‑APP will use Ginkgo Automation's Catalyst scheduling software and Reconfigurable Automation Carts (RACs) to automate end‑to‑end workflows, support BSL‑2 operations, enable remote cloud‑lab planning, and generate multimodal data intended for AI/ML analysis.

Positive

• Contract value up to $47M over four years
• Multimodal data designed for AI/ML-ready phenotyping
• Modular RAC architecture enables reconfiguration and scalability
• Cloud lab features support remote operation and higher uptime

Negative

• Contract cap limited to up to $47M across four years

Key Figures

DOE-related contract value up to $47M Four-year High‑Throughput Automated Phenotyping Platform contract for M2PC

Contract duration 4 years Term of HTP‑APP contract with EMSL at PNNL

Equity offering size up to $100 million Class A common stock offering via 424B5 prospectus supplement on 2025-09-04

Net tangible book value $642,728,535 As-adjusted net tangible book value at June 30, 2025 in 424B5

Book value per share $10.00 per share As-adjusted net tangible book value per share at June 30, 2025

Immediate dilution $1.33 per share Dilution to new investors from 424B5 equity offering

Current share price $9.21 Price prior to this news, vs 200-day MA of $9.98

52-week range $5.00 – $17.58 52-week low and high before this announcement

Market Reality Check

$9.21 Last Close

Volume Volume 945,581 is below 20-day average 1,169,859 (relative volume 0.81x) normal

Technical Price 9.21 is trading below 200-day MA at 9.98

Peers on Argus 1 Down

DNA is up 2.22% while momentum scanner shows a peer like IMTX moving -7.33% with no news; broader biotech peers show mixed moves, suggesting a stock-specific reaction to this contract announcement.

Historical Context

Date	Event	Sentiment	Move	Catalyst
Dec 03	Government contract	Positive	+4.9%	ARPA-H EMBODY award up to $8.4M for MV gene therapy platform.
Nov 06	Earnings results	Negative	-2.5%	Q3 2025 results with revenue decline and significant net loss reported.
Nov 03	Government contract	Positive	-1.5%	BARDA BioMaP agreement up to $22.2M for mAb biomanufacturing.
Oct 31	Partnership extension	Positive	+8.2%	Multi-year strategic partnership with Bayer extended for ag biologicals.
Oct 30	Earnings logistics	Neutral	-1.5%	Announcement of Q3 2025 results presentation and investor webcast details.

Pattern Detected

Positive partnership and contract news has often aligned with upward price moves, while some government awards showed muted or contrary reactions.

Recent Company History

Over the last few months, Ginkgo Bioworks reported Q3 2025 results with $39M revenue and reaffirmed full-year guidance, which saw a modest negative reaction. The company has secured multiple government-related awards, including a BARDA BioMaP project worth up to $22.2M and contribution to an ARPA-H EMBODY contract up to $8.4M. It also extended a multi-year partnership with Bayer, which coincided with a strong positive move. Today’s DOE-related phenotyping platform contract fits the pattern of Ginkgo deepening government and strategic collaborations.

Regulatory & Risk Context

Active S-3 Shelf Registration 2025-08-07

The company has an active S-3 shelf registration dated 2025-08-07, expiring 2028-08-07, with at least one usage via a 424B5 prospectus supplement filed on 2025-09-04 for an offering of Class A common stock.

Market Pulse Summary

This announcement adds another sizable government-related engagement, with a four-year contract worth up to $47M to build a high-throughput phenotyping platform for DOE’s M2PC. It follows earlier BARDA and ARPA-H awards and a multi-year Bayer extension, reinforcing Ginkgo’s role as an enabling platform for complex biology. Investors may track execution milestones on this project, overall contract backlog, and any further use of the existing shelf and 424B5 equity program when assessing capital needs and growth durability.

Key Terms

ai/ml technical

"capture multimodal analytical measurements suitable for AI/ML, and (iii) provide"

AI/ML stands for artificial intelligence and machine learning, software systems that identify patterns in data and make predictions or automate decisions, improving performance as they process more information. Investors care because these technologies can boost revenue, cut costs and create competitive advantages — like a factory that learns to produce goods faster and with fewer mistakes — while also introducing execution, ethical and regulatory risks that can affect a company’s value.

AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.

BOSTON, Dec. 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) today announced it has been awarded by the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) a four-year, up to $47M contract to co-design, build, and integrate a High‑Throughput Automated Phenotyping Platform (HTP‑APP) in support of the Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability (M2PC). The platform, selected through a competitive procurement process, is intended to enable the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research program to generate rich, reproducible microbial and microbiome data that ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of the bioeconomy, safeguarding economic, societal, and national security benefits while maintaining global leadership in biotechnology innovation.

Drawing on Ginkgo Automation's dynamic Catalyst scheduling software and modular Reconfigurable Automation Carts (RACs), the HTP‑APP is designed to automate end‑to‑end workflows—from media and cultivation to sample preparation and multimodal analytics—while supporting BSL‑2 operations, remote planning and execution, and laboratory integration. This modular approach is expected to help PNNL adapt the platform as scientific needs evolve, add new methods or instrumentation, and maintain high uptime in a user‑facility environment. Conceptual design elements include a RAC‑based architecture with function‑oriented "pods," integrated transport, and software‑enabled interleaving of diverse protocols.

"Our team is excited to contract and collaborate with PNNL again to build a new capability we believe will expand access to high‑quality biological phenotyping at scale. By combining modular automation with flexible software and managed support, we aim to help researchers generate the datasets that modern AI methods need," said Will Serber, General Manager of Ginkgo Automation.

"The recent AI Action Plan from President Trump called for investment in AI-enabled cloud laboratories to accelerate U.S. scientific innovation. This new project is a powerful example of how Ginkgo's AI-enabled cloud lab technology can help keep the American bioeconomy competitive globally," added Jason Kelly, CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks.

M2PC is focused on delivering a predictive understanding of complex biological systems relevant to DOE's mission. The planned platform is intended to (i) increase throughput and reproducibility of phenotyping campaigns across diverse microbes and consortia, (ii) capture multimodal analytical measurements suitable for AI/ML, and (iii) provide a sustainable, expandable foundation for future instrumentation and workflows at PNNL's EMSL.

More information about RACs and Catalyst automation software can be found here or at automation.ginkgo.bio.

Planned platform highlights

• Modularity and expandability: RAC‑based hardware that can be reconfigured or scaled as needs change; software "digital twin" tools to model throughput and identify bottlenecks.
• End‑to‑end workflow coverage: Media prep, cultivation (including photosynthetic workflows), sample prep, and multimodal analytics (e.g., plate readers, imaging, flow cytometry, and LC/GC‑MS modalities) designed to support high‑quality, multimodal data generation.
• Operations and reliability: Designed for cloud lab-ready remote monitoring and safe recovery, with training and managed support to help maximize uptime in a national user‑facility setting.

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 Agriculture provides R&D services for innovative companies that are developing agricultural biologicals and novel plant traits, including lead discovery, characterization and validation, product & process co-development, and small-scale toll 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 (DNA) announce on December 5, 2025 about PNNL?

Ginkgo announced a four-year, up to $47M contract to co-design, build, and integrate a High‑Throughput Automated Phenotyping Platform for PNNL's EMSL supporting DOE M2PC.

How large is the Ginkgo (DNA) contract with PNNL and over what timeframe?

The award is for up to $47 million over a four-year period.

What technologies will Ginkgo (DNA) supply for the HTP‑APP at PNNL?

Ginkgo will provide modular Reconfigurable Automation Carts (RACs) and Catalyst scheduling software to automate end‑to‑end workflows and integrate multimodal analytics.

Will the HTP‑APP support biosafety and remote operations for PNNL?

Yes; the platform is designed to support BSL‑2 operations, cloud lab‑style remote planning and execution, and managed support for uptime.

Does the PNNL contract state expected revenue recognition or financial impact for Ginkgo (DNA)?

The release specifies the contract is up to $47M over four years but does not detail revenue recognition or timing.

How does the HTP‑APP intend to support AI/ML for researchers using PNNL facilities?

The platform aims to capture multimodal analytical measurements and reproducible phenotyping data suitable for AI/ML model training and analysis.