AMD to buy Fei-Fei Li’s AI start-up for $8bn

AMD has agreed to acquire AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li’s start-up World Labs for $8.2bn in an all-stock transaction that will push the Nvidia competitor further beyond chips into model development.

Li, the Stanford University researcher described as the “godmother of artificial intelligence”, founded the company in 2024 to work on so-called world models, AI systems that can understand and replicate 3D environments.

AMD chief executive Lisa Su said the deal would give the nearly $1tn chip designer insight into how AI workloads are evolving and “help shape its future technology road maps”.

AMD has struck a spree of deals over recent years as it looks to build its hardware and software ecosystem. These include its $4.9bn acquisition of ZT Systems in 2025 and the $665mn acquisition of Finnish AI model company Silo AI in 2024.

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