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AMD to Acquire AI Startup Founded by Fei-Fei Li in $8.2 Billion Deal
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Chip manufacturer AMD has agreed to acquire artificial intelligence startup World Labs for $8.2 billion. If the transaction is completed successfully, the company founded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li will become part of AMD. The two companies said in a statement on Monday that the deal will be conducted entirely in stock, is expected to close by the end of the year, and remains subject to approval by regulators.
AMD is Nvidia's primary challenger in the AI chip market. This acquisition will give AMD access to the top researchers and models that World Labs has brought together, as well as a deeper understanding of the direction in which the AI field is developing. The company believes that these talent and technical resources will help it plan future hardware products and further refine its AI system portfolio.
World Labs primarily develops so-called “world models,” which are AI software programs capable of running applications in the physical world. Such models can generate and reconstruct three-dimensional environments, providing AI systems with a new technological path for understanding the real world. World Labs said that the technology can be used to advance developments in robotics, scientific discovery, and factory equipment.
Fei-Fei Li is a renowned researcher and computer scientist at Stanford University and previously served as CEO of World Labs. Under the agreement, she will join AMD after the transaction is completed as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting directly to AMD CEO Lisa Su. She said that as World Labs continued to grow, the company's ambitions were also expanding.
Lisa Su said that the deeper the understanding of end-to-end AI, the better the systems that can be built. She explained that the acquisition of World Labs was intended to bring the world-class talent assembled by Fei-Fei Li to AMD and combine it with AMD's capabilities in hardware, software, and systems. In her view, the synergy between AI models and computing hardware will become an important foundation for AMD as it plans future products.
Fei-Fei Li said that the development of World Labs had also increased the company's demand for computing power. She said that, at this stage, partnering with AMD would give World Labs, AMD, and the entire ecosystem an opportunity. Through this collaboration, the two sides hope to accelerate the flywheel effect between software and hardware development and further connect model research and development with the construction of computing platforms.
If regulatory approval proceeds smoothly, the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the year, and World Labs' team and models will be integrated into AMD. AMD will then be able to use the relevant talent and models to develop a deeper understanding of end-to-end AI requirements and plan future hardware products accordingly. Fei-Fei Li will serve as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting directly to Lisa Su. The integration of systems after the transaction is completed, changes in computing-power demand, and the application of world models in areas such as robotics and factory equipment will become key areas of focus going forward.
