Primary source: Danaher Q3 2026 results release

Danaher Chief Executive Julie Sawyer Montgomery told analysts on Wednesday's third-quarter earnings call that drug discovery powered by AI could become a major source of growth for the company over the long run, according to a transcript of the call². Reuters also reported the remarks⁵.

Montgomery said Danaher already owns the pieces such work needs: lab instruments, consumables, automation and software, plus enough scale to be a priority customer for frontier AI labs². She said the business is not material today but has begun to add modestly to orders and revenue^2,5.

She pointed to two recent announcements². On Oct. 7 the company said it plans an AI-powered autonomous lab at its Abcam unit, expected to run at scale in early 2027, which it projects will find affinity reagents such as antibodies up to eight times faster³. On Oct. 14 it announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to build AI computing into its instruments and lab workflows⁴.

Montgomery also said on the call that Danaher is working with Anthropic on standards meant to make lab instruments easier to connect to AI agents and to each other².

The AI remarks came alongside quarterly results. Danaher reported revenue of $6.6 billion, up 8.5% from a year earlier, and adjusted earnings of $2.11 a share, up 11.5%¹. It raised its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to $8.57 to $8.62 a share, from $8.45 to $8.60¹.