AMD Buys World Labs for $8.2 Billion to Expand Physical AI

AMD said it has agreed to buy World Labs for about $8.2 billion to expand into 3D intelligence and “physical AI.” World Labs builds AI models designed to see, measure, and understand real-world environments for robotics and simulation. Founded in 2024 by Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li, the startup has raised more than $1.2 billion, including from AMD, NVIDIA and Autodesk. Li will join AMD as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist, reporting to CEO Lisa Su. AMD plans to scale World Labs’ training with its Instinct GPUs while the teams continue developing core spatial and simulation models, including tools like Marble and Atlas.