AMD acquires ‘godmother of AI’ Li Fei-Fei’s start-up as battle with Nvidia intensifies
Por Chong Ming Lee,Minxiao Chang — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement Artificial intelligence Tech Big Tech AMD acquires ‘godmother of AI’ Li Fei-Fei’s start-up as battle with Nvidia intensifies
Acquisition gives US chipmaker greater exposure to world-model technology seen as crucial for robotics and physical AI
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Chong Ming Lee and Minxiao Chang in Shenzhen Published: 12:30pm, 29 Sep 2026 US chip giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has agreed to acquire World Labs, the artificial intelligence start-up founded by renowned Chinese-American computer scientist Li Fei-Fei , for US$8.2 billion in an all-stock deal, as the company steps up its rivalry with Nvidia.
The acquisition, expected to close by the end of this year, would integrate World Labs’ research team and spatial-intelligence model expertise into AMD, according to an announcement on Monday.
Li, a Stanford University professor widely known as the “ godmother of AI ” for creating the groundbreaking ImageNet database, would join AMD as executive vice-president and chief scientist, reporting directly to CEO Lisa Su, the announcement said. Founded in 2024, World Labs specialises in spatial intelligence, developing so-called world models that can perceive, generate and reconstruct 3D environments. The technology is considered increasingly important for robotics and physical AI , where models must interact with the real world rather than simply process text. Select Voice Select Speed 0.8x 0.9x 1.0x 1.1x 1.2x 1.5x 1.75x 00:00 00:00 1x AI-generated voice
