Timeline
- 8.5
Fei-Fei Li's startup acquired by Lisa Su for 55 billion yuan! The largest world-model deal lands
AMD has acquired Fei-Fei Li's world-model startup in a deal reported at about 55 billion yuan (roughly $7.7 billion), described as the largest transaction in the world-model space to date. Li will join AMD as chief scientist. The transaction would bring a leading spatial-intelligence research lab inside a major chipmaker, with its founder taking a chief scientist role — pointing to closer alignment between world-model research and AI hardware strategy. The headline figure of 550亿元 yuan is equivalent to roughly $7.7 billion. Li's role after the deal is stated as chief scientist at AMD.
- 8.0
AMD is acquiring AI company World Labs in a deal worth more than $8 billion
AMD announced it is acquiring World Labs, the AI research lab co-founded by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock deal worth approximately $8.2 billion. World Labs launched in 2024 and had reached a $1 billion valuation within months of founding. The purchase is AMD's second-largest acquisition on record and extends the chipmaker's AI portfolio beyond hardware into world-model and foundation-model research, where it would compete more directly with Nvidia. AMD had previously invested in World Labs before the deal. The consideration is entirely in AMD stock rather than cash. World Labs' first commercial product is a world generation model, and the company has introduced the Marble world model, initially offered as a limited-access beta preview.