AMD is acquiring AI company World Labs in a deal worth more than $8 billion

AMD will acquire artificial intelligence company World Labs in a deal valued at more than $8 billion, the chipmaker confirmed. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year. World Labs co-founder and CEO Fei-Fei Li will take on a senior role at AMD once the transaction is complete.

Li will serve as executive vice president and chief scientist at AMD, reporting to CEO Lisa Su. In that position she will help guide the company's technical direction as it builds products for AI workloads. The World Labs team will remain focused on advancing AI model research after the deal closes.

AMD said the purchase will strengthen its ability to develop AI hardware, software and systems around the needs of emerging models and applications. The company has been working to position itself in the market for data center chips that run AI workloads, a segment where its rivals have made large investments.

Li described the decision as a continuation of her mission. In a post on her Substack, she said she once recognized it was time to start a company to pursue foundation models beyond large language models, and that joining AMD is now the right path for her and for World Labs. She said the team is committed to pushing the frontier of AI to solve real problems and to doing so openly with the community and the broader ecosystem.

Su said that building compute platforms for the next generation of AI demands a deep understanding of how models are changing. She said Li and the World Labs team bring strong research leadership and model expertise. According to Su, AMD can apply that insight to develop the hardware, software and systems that will power the next generation of AI and to strengthen the open AI ecosystem.

The deal is the latest in a string of multibillion-dollar acquisitions tied to AI. Nvidia announced earlier in September that it would acquire Hugging Face for nearly $13 billion. AMD's agreement to buy World Labs adds another major transaction to a consolidating market for AI talent and technology.

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