AMD acquires startup cofounded by ‘godmother of AI’ Fei-Fei Li for $8.2 billion

(Credit: Courtesy of World Labs)

Chipmaker AMD is acquiring World Labs, a two-year-old startup focused on physical AI that was cofounded by industry pioneer Fei-Fei Li. The $8.2 billion, all-stock deal will give AMD important technology in an emerging branch of AI that could power a new generation of autonomous machines such as robots and self-driving cars.

The acquisition will help AMD—which makes the GPU chips crucial for training and running AI models—design its products for the evolving applications of AI, and help it better compete with archrival Nvidia, which is also expanding into physical AI.