Twist Bioscience Shares Soar 10.27% to New High, Extending a Remarkable 493% Yearlong Rally Fueled by AI

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Shares of Twist Bioscience Corp. surged 10.27% to $174.78 in Wednesday trading, adding $16.28, extending one of the most dramatic rallies on Wall Street this year for the synthetic DNA technology company, whose stock has now climbed roughly 493% over the past 52 weeks.

Wednesday's gain continues a pattern of sustained strength that has defined Twist Bioscience's trading throughout September. The stock strung together seven consecutive positive trading sessions through September 21, a streak that added roughly $2.6 billion to the company's market value and pushed its total valuation above $10 billion, even as the broader S&P 500 returned just 0.2% over that same seven-day stretch. That run followed an earlier six-day streak through September 17 that had already added close to $1.9 billion in market value on its own.

The rally's most significant catalyst came on September 17, when Twist Bioscience announced a new data-services agreement with Eli Lilly's artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery platform, known as TuneLab. Under that arrangement, users of Eli Lilly's platform can route antibody characterization orders through Twist Bioscience's preferred laboratory protocols, a deal that feeds high-quality laboratory data back into the AI-driven drug discovery process. Shares jumped nearly 10% on the news that day, with the stock's climb from a close of $124.72 on September 4 to $157.29 by September 17 illustrating the pace of the broader rally already underway before the Lilly deal was even announced.

Alongside the Lilly announcement, Twist Bioscience raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $456 million to $457 million and reiterated a goal of reaching adjusted EBITDA breakeven by the fourth quarter of its current fiscal year. The company's balance sheet showed $166.8 million in cash and short-term investments, with a total debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 2.7, metrics reflecting relatively manageable leverage even as the company continues operating at a loss. Twist Bioscience remains unprofitable on an operating basis, with an EBIT margin around negative 31.5% and negative returns on both equity and assets, though the company's operating cash flow has recently turned slightly positive, a shift some analysts have pointed to as an early signal that the business may be approaching a more sustainable financial footing.

Twist Bioscience, led by co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Emily Leproust alongside Chief Financial Officer Adam Laponis, provides synthetic DNA-based products spanning synthetic genes, tools for laboratory sample preparation, antibody libraries used in drug discovery and development, and DNA-based digital data storage technology. The company appeared at the 2026 Global Healthcare Conference on September 15, where its leadership outlined the broader synthetic DNA business to investors just ahead of the stock's most dramatic gains later that month.

Analysts have offered a range of views on how much further the rally can extend. One technical analysis published around the time the stock touched a fresh all-time high noted a 100% "Buy" signal across the technical indicators reviewed, while simultaneously flagging a relative strength index reading of 72.95, a level generally considered to indicate an asset may be overextended in the short term, alongside notably high short interest in the stock. That same analysis noted that consensus analyst price targets sat well below the stock's then-current trading levels, suggesting limited additional upside if the stock were to trade in line with Wall Street's average expectations.

Other market observers have offered a more cautious overall assessment of the stock's valuation. One recent analysis rated Twist Bioscience a Hold, arguing the company's roughly $9.5 billion valuation at the time appeared disconnected from its underlying fundamentals, with profitability still elusive despite the raised revenue guidance. That same analysis attributed the stock's approximately 200% surge over a recent stretch to a combination of AI-related news flow, short-squeeze dynamics among traders betting against the stock, and strong growth in the company's DNA-based digital data storage revenue, rather than to any single quarter of unusually strong earnings results.

Twist Bioscience's growth story has increasingly centered on the intersection of synthetic biology and artificial intelligence, with the company pointing to triple-digit growth in AI-enabled drug discovery orders and continued progress commercializing its oncology diagnostic testing products as key drivers of its improving financial trajectory. Operating leverage, manufacturing efficiency improvements, and a shift toward higher value-add product offerings have also been cited as factors supporting the company's improving margin profile as it works toward its stated goal of reaching operating breakeven.

The company's most recent full quarterly results showed revenue growth of 19.2% over the trailing twelve months, ahead of the median growth rate among comparable healthcare-sector companies, even as its operating margin over the same period remained deeply negative relative to profitable industry peers, underscoring the gap between the company's strong top-line growth and its continued path toward sustained profitability.

With Twist Bioscience's stock having already delivered one of the strongest performances of any biotechnology company over the past year, investors are likely to continue watching closely for further updates on the company's progress toward its adjusted EBITDA breakeven target, along with any additional partnerships tied to AI-driven drug discovery, as the key catalysts likely to determine whether the current rally can be sustained or whether the stock's increasingly demanding valuation eventually prompts a more significant pullback.