Tempus to buy cancer test maker Personalis for $1.5 billion

July 20, 2026 8:47 AM EDT

Tempus logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By Christy Santhosh

July 20 (Reuters) - ‌Tempus AI ​said on ​Monday it would buy Personalis in a deal valued at about $1.5 billion, adding a cancer test to the ‌AI-enabled precision medicine firm's oncology portfolio.

Personalis shares fell 12% in ⁠morning trading, while Tempus dropped nearly 9%.

Personalis shareholders will receive $16.25 per share, ‌mostly in Tempus stock — a ‌5.6% premium to the last close of the cancer test maker's shares. Tempus has the option to pay up to 50% ​of the deal value in cash.

The share prices fell due to the deal's stock-based structure, Guggenheim analyst Subbu Nambi said, ⁠adding that Personalis investors remain skeptical about Tempus' potential upside.

Tempus will gain access to ​Personalis' NeXT personal cancer test, which uses MRD, or minimal residual disease, technology to detect tiny traces of ​cancer that may remain after surgery, ‌chemotherapy or other treatment and can be too small to appear on scans.

The test creates a personalized ⁠genetic signature of a patient's cancer, which doctors can track over time through blood tests to monitor for remaining or returning disease.

The acquisition expands ⁠on an existing partnership between the companies, under which Tempus invested in Personalis ​in November 2023 to develop the NeXT personal test.

"The reason we didn't do this a year or two ago is we wanted to be ‌at the point in the curve where this was going to quickly turn into a really healthy ‌business from a gross profit and a margin perspective," Tempus CEO ⁠Eric Lefkofsky said on Monday.

The ‌deal is expected to ​close in late 2026 or early 2027.

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and ‌Sahal Muhammed)



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