AMD agrees to acquire World Labs, the spatial-intelligence AI lab led by Fei-Fei Li, with closing expected by the end of 2026

AMD agrees to acquire World Labs, the spatial-intelligence AI lab led by Fei-Fei Li, with closing expected by the end of 2026

28 September 2026 — AMD announced on 28 September 2026 that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire World Labs, the San Francisco AI model and research lab led by Dr Fei-Fei Li. World Labs builds "spatial intelligence" models that generate, reconstruct and simulate interactive 3D environments from text, images and video, and works on technology for teaching robots. AMD says the transaction is all-stock and valued at approximately $8.2 billion. It is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

What the two companies say

• AMD: the acquisition brings a team of researchers and model experts into AMD, strengthening its ability to develop AI hardware, software and systems around how models are built and run.
• After closing: the World Labs team will continue to focus on AI model research. Dr Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to chief executive Dr Lisa Su.
• World Labs: in its own announcement, it says the two companies began a technical partnership last year, starting with training and inference optimisation on AMD GPUs. They see the combination as a way to build "an end-to-end open AI ecosystem spanning hardware, software" and applications. Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall will continue to lead the World Labs team with Dr Li.

What neither says

Neither announcement says what will happen to World Labs' existing products, APIs, pricing or licence terms after the deal closes, or whether its models will stay available on non-AMD hardware and clouds.

Why it matters for buyers

For companies using World Labs' tools in 3D content, simulation, robotics or digital-twin work, a change of owner is the moment to review supply terms. For AMD customers, the deal signals more AMD-owned models and software around its accelerators, alongside the hardware.

What to do

• Customers of World Labs should check their contract for change-of-control terms, and ask about product and API continuity and pricing through and after closing.
• Keep exports of any assets and models you depend on, in open formats where possible.
• Teams evaluating AI accelerators should watch for AMD software and model releases tied to the deal after it closes.

Sources

• AMD press release: AMD to Acquire World Labs to Advance the Future of AI Compute — 28 September 2026
• World Labs: announcement of the agreement to join AMD — 28 September 2026