AMD has agreed to acquire World Labs, the AI research and model-development company led by Fei-Fei Li, for $8.2 billion, according to a statement issued by the chipmaker on Monday.
The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, provided it receives regulatory clearance and satisfies other customary closing requirements.
San Francisco-based World Labs develops “spatial intelligence” models capable of generating, reconstructing and simulating interactive three-dimensional environments using text, image and video inputs. Its technology also supports robotic learning and simulation.
AMD said bringing World Labs into the company will add AI researchers and model specialists to its team, helping it develop hardware, software and complete systems tailored to emerging AI models and applications.
The company also sees the acquisition as strategically relevant as AI expands into areas such as advanced reasoning, robotics, simulation and physical AI. World Labs’ research could give AMD greater insight into how AI workloads are evolving and inform the company’s future technology roadmaps.
Once the transaction closes, World Labs will continue its research into AI models as part of AMD. Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting directly to chair and chief executive Lisa Su.
Li said the combination with AMD would provide her team with greater resources and engineering capabilities, allowing it to accelerate research and contribute to the development of infrastructure for the next generation of AI.
Su said developing computing platforms for emerging AI applications requires a clear understanding of how models are evolving. She added that World Labs’ expertise in AI research and model development would support AMD’s efforts to build the hardware, software and systems required for these workloads.
