AMD agrees to buy World Labs for $8.2 billion

AMD has agreed to acquire World Labs, the artificial intelligence research company founded by Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock transaction valued at about $8.2 billion. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and standard closing conditions.

World Labs develops AI models that can generate, reconstruct, and simulate interactive 3D environments from text, images, and video. These systems are often described as spatial intelligence or world models. They could support uses such as robotics training, simulations, entertainment production, and the creation of synthetic training data.

After the deal closes, Li will become AMD’s executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to CEO Lisa Su. World Labs co-founders Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall will continue to lead the team within AMD, according to the companies.

More than a model acquisition

AMD says the acquisition will give it a closer view of how advanced AI workloads are changing. That insight could influence the design of its future chips, software, and computing systems. The company is seeking to strengthen its position against Nvidia, which has built a broad ecosystem for AI hardware and software.

World Labs and AMD already began working together last year on training and inference optimization using AMD graphics processors. In its announcement, World Labs says joining AMD will provide greater engineering resources and closer access to hardware.

Li is widely known for her work on ImageNet, a large image dataset that helped advance computer vision research. She founded World Labs in 2024 around the idea that AI needs a stronger understanding of physical space and real-world interactions.

Sources

• AMD will acquire Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs for $8.2 billion – TechCrunch
• AMD to Acquire World Labs to Advance the Future of AI – AMD Newsroom
• World Labs Is Joining AMD – World Labs