Reported: Reuters reported on Feb 18, 2026 that Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs raised $1 billion to build what it calls "spatial intelligence" - AI that understands and reasons about 3D space. Read the report on investing.com article.
The funding and backers:
World Labs raised about $1 billion. Autodesk invested $200 million and will advise the company. Chip makers Nvidia and AMD also invested. Other backers include Emerson Collective (Laurene Powell Jobs’ venture and philanthropy), Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Sea (the Singapore tech group behind Shopee and Garena).
World Labs did not disclose a valuation. Bloomberg had earlier reported talks around a $5 billion valuation in January.
For more on Autodesk’s involvement, see the Autodesk news release.
What they are building:
The core model is called Marble. It is a multimodal "world model" that can create navigable 3D scenes from a single image or a line of text. In plain terms: you can give Marble a photo or a short description, and it can build a 3D environment you can move around in. Marble now supports video and coarse 3D layouts so users can get more control over scene structure and motion.
See World Labs documentation on World Labs docs.
Who is behind it:
Fei-Fei Li is a Stanford computer science professor and one of the creators of ImageNet. She is widely credited with helping start modern computer vision research. Li raised $230 million in September 2024 to launch World Labs and has emphasized building AI that understands physical space. Read her Stanford profile.
The broader field:
Other big labs are racing on similar ideas. For example, Google DeepMind’s Genie family can generate and simulate interactive 3D environments from text or images. This shows that "world models"-AI systems that model objects, depth, motion, and how things interact-are becoming a major area of competition. See DeepMind Genie.
Why it matters for founders:
Hardware gravity: Nvidia and AMD on the cap table does not guarantee GPU access, but it signals strong alignment with the companies that make the chips most 3D models need. That can reduce some partnership friction if integrations deepen. See the investing.com article.
Go-to-market path: Autodesk’s $200 million plus an advisory seat points directly at design, media, AEC (architecture, engineering, construction), and digital-twin workflows - not just lab demos. For Autodesk context, see the Autodesk news release.
Product timing: If your startup touches robotics, augmented or virtual reality (AR/VR), construction, or simulation, start testing 3D-native models and data pipelines now. The tooling and stack are maturing fast, and early integrations can compound into product advantages. See World Labs docs.
Bottom line:
World Labs is funding a bet that AI should learn depth, dynamics, and causality - not just flat pixels or text. With $1 billion and heavyweight partners, that bet just took a big step toward reality. Read more in the investing.com article.
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