World Labs publicly launched on 13 September 2024 with US$230 million raised to develop AI that understands three-dimensional environments. Fei-Fei Li founded the company with computer-vision and graphics researchers Justin Johnson, Christoph Lassner and Ben Mildenhall.
In its launch announcement, the company described plans for Large World Models that could perceive, generate and interact with virtual and physical worlds. It was recruiting across research, engineering and product design.
Funding for a research and product effort
Backers included Andreessen Horowitz, NEA and Radical Ventures. TechCrunch reported two rounds completed months apart.
In a founder interview with WIRED, World Labs outlined plans for a product in 2025. It was a development target, not an available release.
Building models of space
In a same-day investment announcement, a16z partners Martin Casado and Sarah Wang described the goal as a computer representation of a world that people could navigate, change and build upon. Such a representation would support reasoning about physics and cause and effect.
The investors identified design, games, visual effects, augmented reality and virtual reality as potential applications, with robotics a longer-term possibility. Those were proposed uses for a model still being developed.
Illustration: Sulat. Official logo: World Labs.
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