AI news · AMD · World Labs
AMD agrees to buy Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs for $8.2 billion
The all-stock deal makes Li AMD’s chief scientist and brings a world-model lab under a chipmaker competing with Nvidia.
AMD has agreed to buy World Labs, the start-up Fei-Fei Li co-founded to model the physical world. The all-stock deal is worth about $8.2 billion, Fortune reports. Both companies announced it on Monday 28 September 2026. World Labs says the deal should close by the end of the year, once regulators approve.
Li becomes AMD’s executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to chief executive Lisa Su. Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall stay in charge of the team at AMD. Its first product, Marble, builds simulated worlds for entertainment and for training robots, TechCrunch reports.
World Labs is two years old and had raised about $1 billion before the sale, Fortune adds. Su was an early investor in World Labs, Fortune notes. The two firms began working together on GPU optimisation last year. AMD’s shares barely moved.
The deal is a bet on physical AI. World models give robots and self-driving systems simulated practice where real training data is short. AMD wants that research next to its chips. Its rival Nvidia works in the same field through partners such as Wayve.
For studios and brands that build 3D scenes with AI, World Labs’ tools now sit inside a chipmaker’s product line.
Sources
- World Labs: World Labs is Joining AMD. Checked
- Fortune: AMD acquires Fei-Fei Li’s physical AI startup World Labs for $8.2 billion. Checked
- TechCrunch: AMD will acquire Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs for $8.2B. Checked
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