RXRX vs SDGR: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of September 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. RXRX and SDGR share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined RXRX and SDGR exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals is a Salt Lake City-based, clinical-stage technology-enabled biopharmaceutical company that aims to industrialize drug discovery. Its platform combines automated wet-lab biology, high-throughput cellular imaging that generates petabytes of proprietary experimental data, and machine-learning models that map relationships between genes, compounds, and disease, layered with Exscientia's automated precision molecular design. Recursion intends to make money three ways: partnership and collaboration payments (upfront fees, research funding, and milestone payments from large pharma companies that use its platform), future royalties on any partnered drugs that reach market, and value from its own wholly owned pipeline of clinical candidates. Today the company is pre-revenue in the product sense: reported revenue is small (roughly $6.5 million in Q1 2026) and comes mostly from partnerships rather than drug sales.

Full RXRX guide

Schrödinger, Inc. has been building molecular simulation software since 1990, and its core products (Maestro, Glide, FEP+) predict how a candidate molecule will bind to a protein target before anyone synthesises it. Pharmaceutical and materials science customers license the platform, which produced ~$32.5 million of software revenue in the June 2026 quarter. The company also runs a second business that most software vendors do not: it uses its own platform to design drugs, then monetises them through collaborations, spin-outs and equity stakes rather than selling them itself. Eli Lilly's acquisition of Ajax Therapeutics, a company Schrödinger co-founded, for up to ~$2.3 billion produced a ~$45.9 million mark-up on Schrödinger's holding plus a ~$10 million milestone in Q2 2026. In September 2026 the same playbook repeated with Tectora Therapeutics, formed alongside New Enterprise Associates and RA Capital with a ~$55 million Series A, into which Schrödinger contributed two early-stage immunology programs for equity, milestones and royalties.

Full SDGR guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• RXRX drivers: An industrial-scale AI platform and proprietary data moat; A deep big-pharma partnership book.
• SDGR drivers: Bunsen and the agentic AI product cycle; The hosted licensing transition and annual contract value.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The central risk is that Recursion has no approved drug and remains deeply unprofitable, posting a net loss of roughly $117.5 million in Q1 2026 against only about $6.5 million of revenue, so the entire valuation rests on platform promise rather than proven output. For SDGR, the core software business is decelerating at precisely the moment the stock is being repriced for acceleration, and net dollar retention of ~100% means the installed base is no longer expanding on its own.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick RXRX if you believe its drivers more; SDGR if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the RXRX and SDGR guides.

RXRX. Because Recursion is pre-profit with minimal revenue, traditional earnings multiples do not apply, and the figures that matter most are cash on hand, the rate of cash burn, and how long the runway lasts before the company must raise money again. Q1 2026 showed narrower losses driven by sizable cuts to R&D and overhead, which extended the stated runway into early 2028, but revenue came in well below analyst expectations. For a story like this, valuation is ultimately a bet on future platform output and partnership milestones rather than on current financial performance.

SDGR. Full-year 2025 revenue was ~$256 million, up ~23%, so the trailing-twelve-month figure of roughly ~$260 million represents near-flat growth over the last four quarters even as ACV climbed. GAAP profitability is not a useful signal here: quarterly net income swings between a ~$43.2 million loss and a ~$6.0 million profit depending on how the equity stakes are marked, while adjusted EBITDA ran at about negative $114.9 million for 2025. Backing out the cash pile leaves roughly ~$1.9 billion of enterprise value, which the market is applying to a software franchise that generated ~$200 million in 2025 and shrank last quarter.

Headline figures (approximate, 2026-06-27): RXRX shows revenue (q1 2026) ~$6.5 million (mostly partnership and milestone revenue, missed analyst estimates), net loss (q1 2026) ~$117.5 million (narrowed from the prior year on cost cuts), cash and investments ~$665 million (as of March 31, 2026), guided 2026 operating cash burn less than ~$390 million; stated runway into early 2028 without new financing; SDGR shows revenue (ttm) ~$260 million, q2 2026 revenue ~$58.9 million, up ~8% year over year, software revenue (q2 2026) ~$32.5 million, down ~10%, cash and marketable securities ~$418.8 million.

RXRX and SDGR are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined RXRX and SDGR exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.