AMD Acquires World Labs for $8.2B to Strengthen AI Infrastructure

AMD announced it will acquire World Labs, an AI model and research laboratory led by renowned AI researcher Fei-Fei Li, for $8.2 billion in an all-stock transaction expected to close by the end of 2026.

World Labs develops spatial-intelligence models that generate, reconstruct and simulate interactive 3D environments from text, image and video inputs. The company also works on technology for robotic learning and simulation. AMD said the acquisition will bring research and model expertise to strengthen its ability to develop AI hardware, software and systems.

"Building the compute platforms for the next generation of AI requires a deep understanding of how models are evolving," said Lisa Su, chair and CEO of AMD. "Fei-Fei and the World Labs team bring exceptional research leadership and model expertise. Together, we can use that insight to develop the hardware, software and systems that will power the next generation of AI."

Following the close, Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to Su. The World Labs team will continue advancing AI model research as a unit within AMD.

Li is a computer scientist, Stanford professor and founding director of Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI. She previously led Stanford's AI Lab and served as vice president and chief scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud. She created ImageNet, the large labeled image dataset that transformed computer vision research and helped spark the deep-learning revolution.

The acquisition reflects the ongoing momentum in AI industry consolidation. Nvidia recently announced plans to acquire AI firm Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. AMD stated that as AI expands into reasoning, robotics, simulation and physical AI, compute infrastructure demands are becoming more diverse, making World Labs' expertise particularly valuable for shaping future technology roadmaps.