Unilever recently announced plans to develop a new Global Innovation Center with advanced R&D capabilities in New Haven, Connecticut. Currently, the conglomerate has six global R&D Innovation Centers and 12 smaller regional R&D Hubs; the New Haven center is expected to open in Spring 2029.
Over the past decade, Unilever has invested nearly $15 billion in its US market. The UK-based company will invest a further $270 million in the new Global Innovation Center, which will replace its existing regional R&D location in Trumbull, Connecticut.
According to Unilever, New Haven is a growing hub for scientific and technological innovations. The company aims to use this strategic location to gain access to top universities and advance its bioscience and neuroscience research. Additionally, the center, described as “AI-powered,” will expedite scientific innovation and enhance product development.
“Our new Global Innovation Center will bring these capabilities together to develop new, category-defining innovations in the US, and scale globally,” said Richard Slater, Unilever’s Chief Research & Development Officer, in a press release. “The real shift here is integration and speed: science, design, and sensorials working as one, with AI and partnerships accelerating every stage of innovation.”
The AI focus at the US global innovation center aligns with Unilever’s goal of becoming an AI-first organization. In a recent Q&A, Sam Kini, Unilever’s Chief Digital & Technology Officer, affirmed that becoming “AI-first” is one of the three foundational pillars of Unilever’s business transformation.
Unilever is not the only company to expand AI-driven R&D efforts in the US as a strategy to drive global growth. Last year, L’Oréal opened a $160 million R&D facility in New Jersey and subsequently announced a partnership with IBM to build an AI model to accelerate sustainable product formulation. Earlier this year, L’Oréal also partnered with Nvidia to use predictive AI to identify optimal formulations in a digital environment, streamlining the R&I process.
According to a report from InsightAce Analytic, the market for artificial intelligence in beauty and cosmetics is valued at $4.9 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $33.75 billion by 2035. As the market continues to grow, AI will be further incorporated into all aspects of beauty business practices, from marketing to R&D.
AI-powered R&D, coupled with the concentration of these facilities in the US, is strengthening beauty companies' ability to compete both in the US and abroad. With the US emerging as a global hub for AI innovation, investment in AI-enabled research centers is expected to increase. Moves by companies such as Unilever to become AI-first organizations underscore a broader industry shift: AI is rapidly evolving from a competitive advantage to a core component of product development. As a result, beauty companies are expected to deepen partnerships with AI providers and expand investments in AI-driven innovation, accelerating the industry's transformation and reshaping the future of R&D.