AMD today announced the acquisition of World Labs, an AI research lab co-founded by distinguished researcher Dr. Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $8.2 billion. World Labs launched in 2024 and was valued at $1 billion within months. The startup launched its first commercial product, a world-generation model called Marble that allows users to create interactive 3D worlds from a prompt, in 2025.
The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the year. Li will become executive vice president and chief scientist at AMD, reporting to AMD CEO Lisa Su, while the World Labs team “continues to focus on advancing AI model research.” AMD also notes that the acquisition will strengthen “its ability to develop hardware, software and AI systems around the needs of emerging models and applications.”
“Just as I knew it was time to create a startup to jump-start the work of building core models beyond LLMs and achieve the greatest impact in AI, it is once again very clear that the right path for me and World Labs is to continue our mission as part of AMD,” Li said in a post on his Substack. “Together, we are committed to continuing to push the boundaries of AI to solve real problems, openly with the community and the entire ecosystem.”
“Building the computing platforms for the next generation of AI requires a deep understanding of how models evolve,” Su said in a statement. “Fei-Fei and the World Labs team bring exceptional research leadership and model expertise. Together, we can use this knowledge to develop the hardware, software and systems that will power the next generation of AI and strengthen the open AI ecosystem.”
The World Labs deal is just the latest multibillion-dollar AI-related acquisition, with Nvidia announcing earlier this month that it would acquire Hugging Face for nearly $13 billion.
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