Krux
February 20, 2026
AI Pioneer Fei-Fei Li's World Labs Raises $1 Billion
Published: February 20, 2026 at 12:56 AM
Updated: February 20, 2026 at 12:56 AM
100-word summary
World Labs, founded by renowned AI researcher Fei-Fei Li, just secured a massive $1 billion funding round, with design software giant Autodesk leading at $200 million. Tech heavyweights AMD and Nvidia also joined in. The startup's first product, Marble, launched in November 2025 and turns text, images, or videos into editable 3D worlds you can export to other tools. Think AI that understands space like humans do. Autodesk will collaborate on entertainment use cases, hinting at potential applications in gaming, film, and virtual production. This massive bet signals investor confidence that spatial intelligence and world models could transform robotics, AR/VR, and beyond.
What happened
World Labs, founded by renowned AI researcher Fei-Fei Li, just secured a massive $1 billion funding round, with design software giant Autodesk leading at $200 million. Tech heavyweights AMD and Nvidia also joined in. The startup's first product, Marble, launched in November 2025 and turns text, images, or videos into editable 3D worlds you can export to other tools. Think AI that understands space like humans do. Autodesk will collaborate on entertainment use cases, hinting at potential applications in gaming, film, and virtual production.
Why it matters
This massive bet signals investor confidence that spatial intelligence and world models could transform robotics, AR/VR, and beyond.