One of AI’s most influential researchers is joining AMD in an $8 billion deal

One of modern AI’s most influential researchers is now at the center of AMD’s $8 billion bet on physical AI.

AMD said Monday it had agreed to acquire World Labs, a San Francisco startup cofounded in 2024 by Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $8.2 billion.

World Labs is building so-called “world models,” AI systems that can generate and reconstruct interactive 3D environments from text, images, and video. The technology could eventually be used to train robots, simulate factories, and advance scientific research.

Li, often called the “godmother of AI,” is best known for creating ImageNet, a massive database of…