World Labs Raises $1B for Spatial AI
Artificial intelligence company World Labs has closed a $1 billion funding round to advance the development of its spatial AI models. The investment round included several top-tier investors and signals significant market interest in large-scale AI infrastructure.
- World Labs was founded by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, a prominent figure in AI often referred to as the "godmother of AI" for her work on ImageNet, a project that significantly advanced computer vision. Before founding World Labs, she was the Chief Scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud and served as the director of Stanford's AI Lab. - The company specializes in "spatial intelligence," developing AI that can understand, generate, and interact with 3D environments. Their core technology is centered around creating "Large World Models" (LWMs) that can produce interactive 3D worlds from text, images, or videos. - This recent $1 billion funding round included major technology companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Autodesk. Autodesk, a leader in 3D design software, made a substantial investment of $200 million and will also act as an advisor to World Labs. - Prior to this round, World Labs had raised a total of $230 million, reaching a valuation of over $1 billion in September 2024. Reports from January 2026 suggested that this new funding could be based on a valuation of around $5 billion. - World Labs' first commercial product, named Marble, was launched in November 2025. It allows users to generate and edit 3D virtual worlds, with applications in gaming, media, robotics, and architecture. - The broader spatial computing market is projected to grow significantly, with one forecast estimating it will reach $897.5 billion by 2035, up from $168.6 billion in 2025. Another report projects the geospatial analytics AI market to reach $126.58 billion by 2035. - The company's co-founders include experts in 3D rendering and spatial reasoning from institutions like Google Research, Meta Reality Labs, and Epic Games. This team was assembled to combine generative AI with physical simulation and interactivity.
