AI visionary Fei-Fei Li’s startup World Labs has raised $1 billion in fresh funding, accelerating development of groundbreaking “world models” that generate interactive 3D environments. The round includes a $200 million investment from Autodesk, alongside backers like Nvidia, AMD, and Fidelity, building on the company’s 2024 $230 million launch.
Funding Details and Valuation Surge
Following talks for a $5 billion valuation earlier this year, World Labs attracted major strategic players to fuel its mission beyond text and images into physics-aware 3D worlds. CEO Li, dubbed the “godmother of AI” for pioneering ImageNet, emphasized reconciling semantics, space, and dynamics as AI’s next frontier.
World Labs’ Breakthrough Technology
The firm’s flagship Marble model creates downloadable 3D scenes from text, images, or video, with tools like Chisel enabling customizable object design via simple shapes. Applications span robotics simulation, gaming, and design, positioning World Labs to redefine spatial AI amid surging investor confidence in multimodal models.
