AMD Announces All-Stock Acquisition of World Labs Valued at Roughly $8.2 Billion

AMD has announced plans to acquire artificial intelligence startup World Labs in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $8.2 billion. Co-founded by AI researcher Fei-Fei Li in April 2024, World Labs develops world models designed to generate and simulate interactive 3D environments. As part of the transaction, Li will join AMD as executive vice-president and chief scientist, while the World Labs team will continue its research work within the chipmaker.

Li is a prominent figure in artificial intelligence research and is widely associated with ImageNet, a large-scale image dataset that played an important role in advancing computer vision. World Labs has focused on developing AI systems that extend beyond conventional large language models by working with text, images and video to create interactive representations of physical environments. The company says its technology could have applications across robotics, simulation, design and gaming.

In a statement, Li said the decision to become part of AMD was the right path for her and the World Labs team to continue their mission. She said the combined group would continue working on advancing AI and addressing real-world problems while maintaining an open approach with the wider technology community. World Labs recently introduced Atlas, an omni-model architecture designed for camera-view prediction, following the launch of Marble, a world-generation model capable of creating interactive 3D environments from prompts.

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AMD CEO Lisa Su said Li and the World Labs team would bring research leadership and expertise in AI models to the company. She said the collaboration would help AMD develop hardware, software and systems for the next generation of AI while supporting the broader open AI ecosystem. The acquisition gives AMD a deeper connection to AI model research as chipmakers increasingly expand beyond supplying computing hardware into software, models and other parts of the AI technology stack.

The deal comes as major semiconductor companies increase their involvement in AI development and infrastructure. Nvidia has also been expanding its AI capabilities through acquisitions, including its planned purchase of AI platform Hugging Face for nearly $13 billion. AMD has previously acquired AI infrastructure company ZT Systems and Finnish AI research company Silo AI as part of its broader efforts to strengthen its AI ecosystem. The company was also an earlier investor in World Labs.

AMD's acquisition of World Labs remains subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of 2026. The transaction will bring World Labs' world-model research under AMD while giving Li a senior scientific leadership role at the chipmaker. The companies have not indicated that the World Labs team will stop its existing research programme, with the group expected to continue developing AI models as part of AMD.

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