Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc.

Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc., a Boston-based biotechnology manufacturer and contract research organization, delivers genomic surveillance, pathogen detection, and engineered biology solutions to federal agencies as a prime contractor (77% of recent awards) and subcontractor, competing full-and-open without set-aside designations across defense and civilian health agencies. The company operates a single named subsidiary, Ginkgo Knightworks, LLC.

Ginkgo's capability portfolio centers on metagenomic next-generation sequencing (MNGS), whole-genome sequencing for variant detection, traveler-based genomic surveillance, pathogen identification, synthetic biology and cellular engineering, and biodefense applications. Recent representative work includes an $85.7 million definitive contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded February 28, 2025, for the Traveler-Based Genomic Surveillance Program through March 21, 2028; a $118 million CDC IDIQ for Test Surge and Data Sharing services through September 2029, under which Ginkgo has received four task orders totaling $54.6 million in combined potential value; an $11.2 million DARPA definitive contract awarded January 26, 2024, for Ice Control for Cold Environments (ICE) research extending through August 2026; and a $76.6 million CDC contract awarded August 16, 2022, for Airport Genomic Testing at five major U.S. airports, requiring collection and analysis of 483,000 biological samples annually.

Customer concentration in the source data reflects a dramatic dollar skew toward defense infrastructure development. By potential value, the Department of the Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command dominates with three awards valued at $8.28 billion combined — a single massive outlier that accounts for 95% of Ginkgo's total combined potential value across all 44 awards. By award count, the relationship is inverted: CDC Pittsburgh leads with eight awards ($336.2 million combined potential value) and DARPA ranks first with nine awards ($47.1 million combined potential value). CDC, DARPA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Navy together account for 66% of recent award count; the top five customers by dollar value account for 100% of combined potential value. The divergence between award-count and dollar-value rankings reflects CDC's pattern of multiple moderate-value task orders under the Test Surge IDIQ versus the Army's single transformational strategic award.

Ginkgo holds a position on the CDC's Test Surge and Data Sharing multiple-award IDIQ (ceiling $118 million, running through September 2029), which has generated four task orders to date. The company also participates in the Information Analysis Center Multiple-Award Contract and the Joint Enterprise Research Development Acquisition and Production-Procurement (JERDAP) vehicle.

On the federal grant side, Ginkgo acts as prime recipient under cooperative agreements with the Army Research Development and Engineering Command for engineered biology solutions supporting supply chain resiliency and biosensing (through December 2026) and with the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for integrated pest management approaches to algal crop protection (through December 2027). The company also received a Project Grant from the USDA Institute of Food Production and Sustainability in June 2023 for the Extensive Deer Genomic Surveillance (EDGES) project, measuring SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in farmed and wild deer populations in Texas through May 2026.

Ginkgo's subcontracting profile shows it operates as a secondary delivery partner to larger research and defense primes. Named subcontracts include MIGHTY (Microbe/Phage Investigation for Generalized Health Therapy) under University of Illinois; BIO-INSYNC cell engineering work under Carnegie Mellon University; pathogen detection and sequencing support to Booz Allen Hamilton for the Defense Health Agency; and DARPA TRIAGE tactical pathogen identification work under Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp. As a sub-recipient on grants, Ginkgo collaborates with Northeastern University on digital biointelligence tools for infectious disease event detection, with Pennsylvania State University on animal prevalence surveillance modeling, and with the Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem on manufacturing and design initiatives.

SCI-reported service contract invoicing totaled $48.2 million across FY2022–FY2024, with $6.2 million in FY2022 and $42 million in FY2024; no invoicing is recorded for FY2023. FTE workforce on SCI-reportable prime contracts was minimal in FY2022 (2.6 FTEs) and FY2023 (0.0 FTEs), then scaled sharply to 11.9 FTEs in FY2024. Government-paid hourly rates on federal service contracts span from a 10th percentile of $30.06/hr to a median of $169.11/hr and a 90th percentile of $4,363.02/hr, reflecting mixed labor tiers from technical support to senior scientific and program management. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors performed 44% of total contractor hours, with four named subcontractors reported.

Five awards carrying a combined potential value of $100.2 million reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and face recompete risk. The $85.7 million Traveler-Based Genomic Surveillance contract completes March 21, 2028, and the CDC Test Surge IDIQ itself completes September 2029, positioning the agency as Ginkgo's primary recompete focus through 2028.