World Labs Raises $1 Billion to Advance Spatial Intelligence AI

World Labs, the spatial intelligence startup co-founded by renowned AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, has secured $1 billion in new funding to advance its mission of building AI systems that can perceive, generate, and interact with three-dimensional environments. The funding round, announced on February 18, 2026, marks a significant milestone in the race to move artificial intelligence beyond flat images and text into the physical world. The investment round drew participation from major technology players including AMD, Autodesk, Emerson Collective, Fidelity Management & Research Company, NVIDIA, and Sea. Notably, Autodesk contributed $200 million and will serve as an adviser to World Labs, signaling a strategic partnership to integrate spatial AI into 3D design workflows. ## From ImageNet to Spatial Intelligence Fei-Fei Li, often called the "godmother of AI" for her groundbreaking work on ImageNet—the dataset that revolutionized computer vision—believes spatial intelligence represents the next frontier in artificial intelligence. "For AI to be truly useful, it must understand worlds, not just words," Li has stated, emphasizing that worlds are governed by geometry, physics, and dynamics that current language models cannot fully grasp. World Labs emerged from stealth in September 2024 with $230 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. The latest funding round reportedly values the company at approximately $5 billion, reflecting investor confidence in the potential of spatial AI to transform multiple industries. ## Marble: Creating 3D Worlds from Imagination The company's flagship product, Marble, launched in November 2025, allows users to create spatially cohesive, high-fidelity 3D worlds from text descriptions, images, or videos. Unlike traditional 3D modeling tools that require extensive technical expertise, Marble uses AI to generate explorable environments that can be freely navigated, interactively edited, and exported in standard formats like Gaussian splats, meshes, or videos. In January 2026, World Labs introduced the World API, making Marble's capabilities programmatically accessible for integration into other applications. The company also offers Chisel, a hybrid 3D editor that allows users to sketch spatial layouts before AI fills in visual details. ## Revolutionizing Industries from Robotics to Design World Labs envisions its spatial intelligence models transforming numerous sectors. In robotics, the technology can generate vast amounts of synthetic training data, helping robots better understand and navigate physical environments. For the entertainment industry, Marble enables creators to build immersive 3D worlds for gaming, virtual reality, and film production without the traditional time and cost barriers. The partnership with Autodesk is particularly significant for architecture and design. The collaboration aims to create "neural CAD" models that can generate working 3D designs with an understanding of real-world functionality, potentially revolutionizing how buildings, products, and infrastructure are designed. ## The Spatial AI Race Heats Up World Labs is part of a broader industry push toward spatial intelligence, with competitors including Google DeepMind and other research labs developing their own "world models." However, Li's team brings unique expertise from their pioneering work in computer vision and a clear commercial strategy through Marble's freemium and paid tiers. The $1 billion funding will enable World Labs to expand Marble's capabilities, scale its team, and accelerate applications in robotics, scientific discovery, and creative industries. As AI moves from understanding language to comprehending the physical world, World Labs is positioning itself at the forefront of this transformative shift in artificial intelligence.