Technology and Science · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
AMD Agrees To Acquire World Labs Led By Dr. Fei-Fei Li In $8.2 Billion Deal
AMD to acquire World Labs in an all-stock deal worth $8.2 billion. Fei-Fei Li will become AMD's executive vice president and chief scientist.
Whether Marble’s commercial rollout is emphasised.
7 of 8 outlets skipped it: marble is described as a commercial product and launched in 2025.
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The Verge
“The startup launched its first commercial product, a world generation model called Marble”Read the original ↗
Reuters
“The technology is aimed at helping AI systems better understand and reason about the physical world”Read the original ↗
The Verge foregrounds World Labs’ commercial Marble launch, while Reuters frames the deal around physical-world reasoning applications.
AMD buys World Labs
AMD entered into a definitive agreement to acquire World Labs, an AI model and research lab led by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $8.2 billion.
The acquisition would bring a world-class team of researchers and model experts to AMD to strengthen its ability to develop AI hardware, software and systems around the needs of emerging models and applications.
Dr. Lisa Su, chair and CEO, AMD, said, "Building the compute platforms for the next generation of AI requires a deep understanding of how models are evolving," and she added that Fei-Fei and the World Labs team bring exceptional research leadership and model expertise.
Dr. Fei-Fei Li, co-founder and CEO, World Labs, said, "Joining AMD will give our team the resources and engineering depth to accelerate our research and help define the infrastructure needed for the next era of AI."
AMD expected the deal to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
World model and Marble
World Labs develops spatial-intelligence models that generate, reconstruct and simulate interactive 3D environments from text, image and video inputs, along with technology for robotic learning and simulation. World Labs, which raised $1 billion in a funding round earlier this year, develops spatial-intelligence models that can generate, reconstruct and simulate interactive three-dimensional environments from text, image and video inputs. The technology is aimed at helping AI systems better understand and reason about the physical world, with potential uses in robotics, simulation, design and other real-world applications.
Li and AMD CEO Lisa Su showed a World Labs model called Marble creating a 3D scene out of a few images in a demo presented earlier this year. Li called Su a "great friend" in a social media post on Monday.
Roles, timing, and strategy
Following the close of the transaction, World Labs’ team will continue to focus on advancing AI model research, and Dr. Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to Dr. Lisa Su.
The closing of the purchase is expected before the end of 2026, subject to regulatory clearance, and it described the deal as AMD’s second-largest acquisition after acquiring Xilinx for $50 billion in 2022.
World Labs’ research will provide deeper insight into emerging AI workloads and help guide its technology roadmaps across hardware, software and systems.
World Labs’ statement that AI development required "close collaboration across model research, systems and compute," said AMD would use that understanding to shape its chip-making roadmap.
Li described the partnership as the result of a desire to scale World Labs’ technical breakthroughs beyond the lab, writing, "Now that we have tangible proof of the possibilities, we want to do everything we can to accelerate the future."