World Labs has raised $1 billion in new funding, including a strategic $200 million investment from design software giant Autodesk, to advance its spatial intelligence technology. The partnership will integrate World Labs’ AI-powered world models with Autodesk’s industry-standard design tools, beginning with entertainment applications. This funding represents a significant validation of spatial AI’s commercial potential and positions World Labs at the forefront of transforming how creators build and interact with digital environments.
In a development that signals a major shift in the landscape of artificial intelligence and digital design, renowned computer scientist Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs has announced a staggering $1 billion funding round. The investment brings together an impressive coalition of technology and investment heavyweights, with Autodesk contributing $200 million as part of a strategic partnership that could redefine how professionals approach 3D design and spatial reasoning.
The funding round represents more than just a capital infusion—it marks a pivotal moment for spatial intelligence technology, which seeks to teach AI systems to understand, reason about, and generate immersive three-dimensional environments. World Labs, which first emerged from stealth in 2024 with $230 million at a $1 billion valuation, has now attracted backing from semiconductor leaders AMD and Nvidia, along with Emerson Collective, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Sea. While the company declined to disclose its current valuation, industry observers note that reports just weeks ago suggested the startup was targeting a $5 billion valuation, indicating substantial investor confidence in its trajectory.
The partnership with Autodesk carries particular significance given the design software maker’s dominant position in computer-aided design and its deep integration into architectural, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and entertainment workflows. For Autodesk, this investment represents a strategic bet on the future of design technology, where artificial intelligence becomes an active collaborator in the creative process rather than just a passive tool. The company’s platform already underpins much of the world’s physical infrastructure, and spatial intelligence offers a natural evolution of its capabilities.
World Labs’ technology, exemplified by its recently released Marble product, represents a fundamental advance in how digital environments are created. Unlike traditional 3D modeling approaches that require extensive manual work, Marble enables users to generate editable, downloadable 3D environments through AI-powered world models. These systems can not only create immersive spaces but also understand their underlying logic and relationships, opening new possibilities for design iteration and creative exploration.
The collaboration between the two companies will focus initially on entertainment applications, exploring how World Labs’ AI models can enhance and complement Autodesk’s existing tools. This partnership operates at multiple levels, from research collaboration to direct product integration, with Autodesk taking on an advisory role to help guide World Labs’ development efforts. The arrangement suggests a deep, long-term commitment to building technology that bridges the gap between AI-powered creativity and professional design workflows.
Fei-Fei Li, whose pioneering work in computer vision has earned her recognition as one of AI’s most influential figures, framed the partnership in terms of human potential and creative augmentation. Her vision extends beyond mere automation to a future where AI tools amplify human creativity, putting unprecedented power in the hands of designers, builders, and creators across industries. This philosophical alignment with Autodesk’s mission to help people imagine and create a better world suggests the partnership is built on shared values as much as commercial interests.
The investment carries broader implications for the AI industry as well. While much of the recent focus in artificial intelligence has been on language models and text generation, World Labs’ success signals growing interest in AI systems that can understand and manipulate three-dimensional space. Spatial intelligence has applications ranging from virtual production in filmmaking to architectural visualization, urban planning, and industrial design. The involvement of Nvidia and AMD, both critical players in the hardware that powers AI computation, underscores the technical sophistication required for this work and its importance to the future of computing.
For World Labs, the Autodesk investment provides not just capital but crucial validation of its commercial potential. Partnering with an industry standard-bearer gives the startup immediate credibility and a clear path to market integration. The focus on entertainment as an initial use case makes strategic sense—the entertainment industry’s appetite for innovative tools and its willingness to adopt new technologies could provide a proving ground for World Labs’ technology before it expands into other sectors.
As spatial intelligence continues to mature, the collaboration between World Labs and Autodesk could establish templates for how AI companies and established software providers work together to transform industries. The partnership suggests a future where AI becomes deeply embedded in professional workflows, not as a replacement for human creativity but as a powerful amplifier of it.
