AMD makes a big bet on the next era of AI with World Labs acquisition

AMD makes a big bet on the next era of AI with World Labs acquisition AMD makes a big bet on the next era of AI with World Labs acquisition The chip maker is buying the startup and adding AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li as its chief scientist Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs is becoming part of AMD through an $8 billion deal. Fei-Fei Li, the so-called godmother of artificial intelligence, is joining AMD. announced Monday that it is acquiring AI startup World Labs to expand its ability to build hardware and software that can support future models and applications. World Labs, which was founded by Li, builds spatial-intelligence models that can generate and simulate physical environments using text, images and videos.

The models differ from large language models such as those developed by OpenAI and Anthropic, which do not train on physical data. Video 91/1 Skip Ad Continue watching after the adVisit Advertiser websiteGO TO PAGE Why humanoid robots are so hard to mass-produceSee All Videos Why humanoid robots are so hard to mass-produce Play video: Why humanoid robots are so hard to mass-produce As part of the deal, Li will join AMD as an executive vice president and the chip maker’s chief scientist, according to a press release. Don’t Short Yourself offers weekly money tips to help you earn it, stack it and grow it.

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The acquisition will be conducted as an all-stock transaction, meaning that AMD will pay for World Labs using its shares as currency. The deal, valued at $8.2 billion, is expected to close by the end of the year. AMD’s stock was up 0.2% in after-hours trading Monday, after ending the day’s regular session down 3.6%.

The chip maker said demand for computing infrastructure to support emerging areas such as physical AI and robotics is becoming “more diverse,” and that the World Labs acquisition will give it more insight into how those types of AI are progressing. Additionally, the deal is intended to further AMD’s focus on supporting the open ecosystem, the company said, referring to AI models that have publicly available code, training data and other information that can be modified and used by any developer. Li said in a statement that working with AMD will give her startup “the resources and engineering depth to accelerate our research and help define the infrastructure needed for the next era of AI.” Copyright ©2026 MarketWatch, Inc.

All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 PepsiCo plans to raise prices on sodas, chips and dip — and that has Wall Street worried This AI startup has only 14 employees — and a fresh $10 billion valuation ‘I’d rather be on a beach in Bali’: My husband resents my $8 million net worth. Should I pay for his retirement? Bond yields move relentlessly higher, as Wall Street wonders how much more tech stocks can take Britney Nguyen is a tech reporter covering Nvidia, chips and AI.