AMD has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the San Francisco-based startup World Labs. The all-stock transaction is valued at approximately $8.2 billion and is expected to close by the end of 2026, pending regulatory approvals and customary conditions.
World Labs, co-founded by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, specializes in spatial intelligence and the development of AI systems capable of understanding and interacting with three-dimensional environments. The company previously raised $230 million for its technology and recently secured $1 billion in funding, which reportedly valued the firm at $5 billion.
Following the acquisition, Dr. Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to CEO Lisa Su. Co-founders Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall will continue to lead the World Labs team. The companies have maintained a technical partnership since last year, focused on model training and inference optimization using AMD GPUs.
This acquisition follows AMD's recent agreement to purchase Taalas, a Toronto-based developer of specialized AI inference silicon. These moves reflect AMD's strategy to expand beyond traditional chip manufacturing into robotics, autonomous systems, and simulation, aligning with the broader industry shift toward physical AI.
