AMD is set to acquire AI startup World Labs in an all-stock transaction valued at $8.2 billion, expanding the chipmaker’s presence in the emerging field of physical AI and spatial intelligence.
Founded by prominent AI researcher Fei-Fei Li, World Labs develops technology designed to help AI systems understand and simulate 3D environments and physical interactions. The research could support applications across robotics, simulation, design and other real-world use cases.
The acquisition will give AMD access to World Labs’ research in spatial intelligence, a field focused on enabling AI systems to model and reason about the physical world. AMD expects the technology to provide insights into emerging AI workloads and help shape its future hardware, software and systems roadmaps.
Li said the companies began a technical partnership last year focused on model training and inference optimisation using AMD GPUs.
“As our teams worked together, we realized it would be a natural fit to bring together our AI ecosystem of software and hardware, foundation models, and applications.”
World Labs raised $1 billion in a funding round earlier this year that included investment from AMD.
Following the completion of the transaction, Li will join AMD as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist, reporting to CEO Lisa Su. She is known for her research in computer vision and has played a prominent role in the development of modern AI research.
The deal is expected to close by the end of 2026.
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