AMD has signed a definitive agreement to buy World Labs, the artificial intelligence lab led by Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock deal valued at about $8.2 billion. The chipmaker announced the deal on September 28, 2026, and expects to close the purchase before the end of the year, pending regulatory approvals. Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting directly to CEO Lisa Su.
AMD’s purchase of World Labs in 30 seconds
- AMD will pay about $8.2 billion in stock for World Labs, Fei-Fei Li’s 3D model company.
- Closing is expected before the end of 2026 and depends on regulators.
- Fei-Fei Li will be AMD’s chief scientist and report to Lisa Su.
- AMD wants to understand how models are evolving in order to design its hardware and software.
- AMD was already a World Labs investor, as was NVIDIA.
It’s an unusual purchase for a chipmaker. World Labs doesn’t build chips or systems software: it develops models of what it calls spatial intelligence, capable of generating, reconstructing, and simulating interactive 3D environments from text, images, or video, plus technology for training and simulating robots. AMD justifies the deal by what that team can teach it about the workloads coming down the road, not by the business of those models.
Why a chipmaker is buying a model lab
AMD’s argument is that AI is expanding into new territory, such as reasoning, robotics, simulation, and so-called physical AI, and that each demands a different kind of computing. Having a team that develops frontier models would give it first-hand insight into those workloads and help steer future generations of its hardware, software, and systems.
Lisa Su summed it up this way: “Building the compute platforms for the next generation of AI requires deeply understanding how models are evolving.” AMD’s chair and CEO added that the World Labs team brings “exceptional research leadership” and that its knowledge will help develop the hardware, software, and systems for the next generation of AI, as well as “strengthen the open AI ecosystem,” an idea AMD repeats throughout its infrastructure strategy.
Fei-Fei Li, co-founder and CEO of World Labs, argued that advancing the next generation of AI requires close collaboration between model research, systems, and computing. “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,” she said.
The deal fits with the company’s other recent moves. In August, AMD bought Taalas to open another avenue for accelerating inference, and in September it passed the $1 trillion mark in market capitalization. Paying in stock lets AMD use that valuation as currency without spending cash.
What’s known about World Labs, and what the release leaves out
World Labs is based in San Francisco and led by Fei-Fei Li, one of computer vision’s best-known researchers thanks to her work on the ImageNet database. Its most visible product is Marble, launched in November 2025, which generates and edits persistent 3D environments from text, images, video, or 3D mockups, aimed at video games, visual effects, virtual reality, and robotics.
The company has grown quickly in value. In 2024 it raised $230 million and reached a valuation of about $1 billion. In January 2026, Bloomberg reported it was negotiating new funding at a valuation of around $5 billion, and in February a $1 billion round was announced with participation from, among others, AMD, NVIDIA, Autodesk, Emerson Collective, Fidelity, and Sea. AMD, then, was already a shareholder before launching the acquisition, and the $8.2 billion it will pay exceeds the valuation attributed to World Labs earlier in the year.
The announcement leaves out several relevant questions. It doesn’t mention Marble or clarify whether World Labs will keep selling products to outside customers or keep its brand. It also doesn’t detail how many people will join AMD, how the team will integrate with its Instinct GPU and ROCm software divisions, or what will happen to NVIDIA’s stake in the company. And it notes that closing depends on regulatory approvals and other customary conditions.
World models, AI’s next front
World models try to represent what a physical environment is like and how it behaves, something large language models don’t do on their own. They’re used to create 3D scenarios, but also to train robots in simulation before sending them into the real world, one of the fields attracting the most investment this year. Several major tech companies and labs are working in this area, and access to the researchers who master it has become an asset as contested as GPUs themselves.
For AMD, the purchase also marks a shift in position. Until now it competed mainly on hardware and its open software stack. With World Labs it gains its own model-research team, led by a heavyweight figure, at a moment when its rivals are also looking to influence which models get built and on what infrastructure they run.
Frequently asked questions
How much is AMD paying for World Labs?
About $8.2 billion, paid entirely in AMD stock.
When will the deal close?
AMD expects to close it before the end of 2026, provided it obtains regulatory approvals and other customary conditions are met.
What does World Labs do?
It develops spatial-intelligence models that generate, reconstruct, and simulate interactive 3D environments from text, images, and video, plus technology for training and simulating robots. Its known product is Marble.
What role will Fei-Fei Li have at AMD?
She will be executive vice president and chief scientist at AMD, reporting directly to Lisa Su.
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