AI startup World Labs, founded by Stanford University professor Fei-Fei Li, known as the "godmother of AI," has raised $1 billion (about 1.45 trillion won).
World Labs said on the 18th (local time) that Autodesk, a graphic design and engineering software company, invested $200 million (about 290 billion won) in this funding round, with Nvidia, AMD, and U.S. venture capital Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) also participating.
World Labs is focusing on developing a "World Model," an AI model that understands and predicts the three-dimensional (3D) physical laws of the real world. It serves as a gateway to physical AI, which functions as the brain for robots and autonomous vehicles. World Labs unveiled its first commercial world model, Marble, late last year. When given text, images, or video as input, Marble generates a 3D virtual world that can be edited and simulated.
Recently, Google DeepMind also unveiled Project Genie, a world model that creates a 3D virtual world capable of interacting with users with just a single line of text or a single image as input, and French software company Dassault Systèmes is working with Nvidia to develop an industrial world model applicable to manufacturing sites.
World Labs plans to invest the funds raised this time in robotics and scientific research. With this investment, Autodesk is expected to explore ways to apply World Labs' AI model to its own 3D CAD (computer-aided design) software. Li said, "Autodesk and World Labs share a common goal of building physical AI that designers, builders, and makers can use."