Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs Raises $1 Billion to Scale Spatial AI

World Labs, an AI startup co-founded by pioneering researcher Fei-Fei Li, announced on February 18 that it has raised $1 billion in new funding to scale its work on spatial intelligence and 3D world models.

The round was led by a deep bench of industry heavyweights, with Autodesk contributing $200 million and agreeing to serve as a strategic advisor. Other notable backers included semiconductor giants NVIDIA and AMD, along with major investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Emerson Collective, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Sea.

At its foundation, World Labs is developing what it describes as “spatial intelligence”, AI that moves beyond processing text or two-dimensional images and instead understands depth, structure and physical context.

The goal is to build systems capable of generating and reasoning about three-dimensional spaces in ways that more closely mirror how humans perceive the world. 

“We are focused on accelerating our mission to advance spatial intelligence by building world models that revolutionise storytelling, creativity, robotics, scientific discovery, and beyond,” the company said in a statement. 

World Labs last year launched Marble, a model that creates persistent three-dimensional worlds from various input. The new funds will support faster product development and broader industry collaboration.