AMD Acquires Fei-Fei Li's World Labs for $8.2B in Stock
AMD acquires a team of roughly 70 AI researchers and spatial intelligence technology that could inform future chip and systems design for robotics and 3D simulation workloads. One source noted AMD could use the deal to improve its software ecosystem, an area where Nvidia holds an advantage through its CUDA platform.
AMD has signed a definitive agreement to acquire World Labs, an AI model and research lab, for approximately $8.2 billion in an all-stock deal expected to close by the end of 2026 pending regulatory approval. World Labs was founded in 2024 by computer vision scientist Fei-Fei Li along with researchers Justin Johnson, Christoph Lassner, and Ben Mildenhall. Li will join AMD as chief scientist after the deal closes. The acquisition price is roughly 64% above the $5 billion valuation set during a $1 billion February funding round that both AMD and Nvidia participated in. World Labs had raised $230 million in total funding, some of which came from AMD. Because AMD shares have nearly tripled this year to about $1 trillion in market value, paying in stock costs AMD under 1% of the company. AMD said the acquisition brings a team of researchers and model experts to the company, strengthening its ability to develop AI hardware, software, and systems around emerging models and applications. AMD gains roughly 70 researchers working on robotics and 3D simulation models.
Ars Technica's September 30 report on AMD's $8.2 billion all-stock deal to acquire World Labs named the lab's three co-founders alongside Fei-Fei Li: Justin Johnson, Christoph Lassner, and Ben Mildenhall, all of whom founded the company in 2024.
The report placed World Labs' total fundraising at $230 million, some of which came from AMD, and noted that world models are commonly trained on large video datasets, with competing architectures also in use.
AMD announced a definitive agreement on September 28 to acquire World Labs, an AI research lab building spatial intelligence models for robotics, autonomous vehicles, and AR, in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $8.2 billion.
World Labs founder Dr. Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as chief scientist upon close. The price carries a roughly 64% premium over World Labs' $5 billion valuation from a February funding round in which both AMD and Nvidia participated. The deal is expected to close by end of 2026 pending regulatory approvals.
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