The Pulse
AMD to Buy Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs for $8.2 Billion
AMD agreed to acquire World Labs in an all-stock deal valued at about $8.2 billion. World Labs CEO Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, with the deal expected to close by the end of 2026 pending regulato
AI.info Team · Written with AI ·
AMD’s planned purchase of World Labs carries an $8.2 billion price tag—and will be paid entirely in AMD shares. The companies announced the agreement on September 28, 2026; a securities filing says they signed it two days earlier, on September 26. The deal brings Fei-Fei Li’s spatial-intelligence research group inside one of the largest makers of AI computing hardware.
AMD is buying model expertise, not just a lab
World Labs develops models that generate, reconstruct and simulate interactive 3D environments from text, images and video. It also works on technology for robotic learning and simulation. AMD says that experience should help it understand how emerging AI workloads affect the design of future hardware, software and computing systems.
“Building the compute platforms for the next generation of AI requires a deep understanding of how models are evolving,” AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su said in the announcement. She said World Labs’ research expertise could help AMD develop the systems that will power future AI applications. The company framed the acquisition as a way to connect model research more closely to its computing products.
Li will lead research at AMD
After the deal closes, Li will become AMD’s executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to Su. World Labs says Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall will continue leading its team as it joins AMD. The company says the group will keep working on AI model research.
World Labs described the move as a step toward scaling its work and bringing it closer to computing hardware. The company said it began a technical partnership with AMD in 2025, focused on training models and optimizing inference on AMD GPUs. It said the teams’ work together helped make joining the companies a natural fit.
“Joining AMD will give our team the resources and engineering depth to accelerate our research and help define the infrastructure needed for the next era of AI.”
Dr. Fei-Fei Li, co-founder and CEO, World Labs
The $8.2 billion value is in AMD stock
AMD’s September 28 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says the company agreed to acquire all equity interests in World Labs Technologies for approximately $8.2 billion in AMD common stock, subject to customary adjustments. The final number of shares has not been set. The filing says AMD will calculate it using the stock’s average daily volume-weighted price over a ten-trading-day period ending two trading days before the deal closes.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions. Until then, the share count remains undetermined, and the announced closing timetable remains conditional.
World Labs’ work points to physical AI
World Labs focuses on spatial intelligence: AI systems that can represent and work with three-dimensional spaces. Its stated projects include generating and simulating environments, as well as tools connected to robotic learning. Those areas require computing systems suited to workloads that differ from text generation alone.
AMD says the acquisition will help it shape future technology around the needs of developing models and applications. The companies have not described specific product changes or a detailed integration plan in their announcements. For now, the firm commitments are the all-stock purchase, Li’s planned role at AMD and a targeted close by the end of 2026, pending approvals.