AMD intensifies competition with Nvidia in major AI deal

AMD has agreed to acquire startup World Labs, founded by one of the most renowned artificial intelligence researchers, Fei-Fei Li. The deal worth $8.2 billion will be conducted entirely in AMD stock, Financial Times reports.

The deal is expected to close by the end of 2026 after obtaining necessary regulatory approvals. Upon completion of the acquisition, Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist of the company.

World Labs specializes in so-called world models – AI models capable of forming representations of three-dimensional environments, spatial relationships, and object interactions. Such technologies are considered one of the directions of AI development beyond traditional large language models.

World Labs' developments can be used in robotics, computer graphics, games, and autonomous systems, where AI must not only work with text but also understand the physical environment. AMD has previously collaborated with the startup: World Labs is part of the AMD Ventures portfolio, and Fei-Fei Li has noted that AMD computing platforms help the company scale spatial AI development.

For AMD, the acquisition means expanding its presence directly in AI model development. The company traditionally competes with Nvidia in the processor and accelerator market, but in recent years has been increasingly building its own AI ecosystem – from server GPUs and the ROCm software platform to investments in and acquisitions of software developers.

Fei-Fei Li is known, among other things, as one of the creators of ImageNet – a large-scale image database that played a significant role in the development of modern computer vision. She founded World Labs in 2024 with a focus on spatial intelligence and models capable of perceiving and generating three-dimensional worlds.

Based on materials from: Financial Times, AMD