AMD acquires World Labs in $8.2 billion deal to bolster AI systems strategy

Sept 28 — Advanced Micro Devices said on Monday it would acquire Fei-Fei Li's ​AI startup World Labs in an all-stock deal valued at $8.2 billion, giving the chipmaker deeper access to research ‌on AI systems that can understand and simulate the physical world.

The deal gives ⁠AMD a foothold in AI-model ​research as the industry moves ⁠beyond chatbots toward systems that can reason about, simulate and ‌interact with the ‌physical world, helping the chipmaker tailor its infrastructure to those ⁠emerging workloads.

San Francisco-based World Labs, ⁠which raised $1 billion in a funding round earlier this year, develops spatial-intelligence models that can generate, reconstruct and simulate interactive three-dimensional environments from text, image and video inputs.

The technology is aimed at helping AI systems better understand and reason ‌about the physical world, with potential ​uses in robotics, simulation, design and other real-world applications.

The startup also develops technology for robotic learning and simulation. Spatial intelligence differs from AI systems focused primarily on language or two-dimensional images by seeking to model how objects, spaces and actions work in a three-dimensional environment.

AMD said it expects World ​Labs' research to provide deeper insight into emerging AI workloads and ‌help guide its ‌technology roadmaps ⁠across hardware, software and systems.

Li, a prominent AI researcher known for her work in computer vision, will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist after the transaction closes. She ‌will report to CEO ​Lisa Su. The deal is expected to ‌close by the end ⁠of 2026.

(Reporting ​by Akash Sriram and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by ​Maju Samuel)

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