AMD acquires World Labs AI startup, upping the ante against Nvidia

Chipmaker AMD has announced an agreement to acquire World Labs, a world models startup founded in 2024 by computer vision scientist Fei-Fei Li alongside fellow researchers Justin Johnson, Christoph Lassner, and Ben Mildenhall. The transaction is valued at $8.2 billion and is expected to close by the end of the year, pending regulatory approval.

World Labs initially launched with $230 million in funding—including backing from AMD—to develop predictive simulations of the physical world, producing tools such as the Marble and Atlas models that generate exportable 3D assets. Following the acquisition, Fei-Fei Li will assume the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist at AMD, while Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall will continue leading the World Labs team as it integrates into AMD to establish a frontier research organization.

AMD noted that the acquisition will provide deeper insight into evolving workloads as artificial intelligence expands into reasoning, simulation, physical AI, and robotics.