AMI Labs, the new AI venture co-founded by Turing Prize recipient Yann LeCun following his departure from Meta, has secured $1.03 billion in funding, achieving a pre-money valuation of $3.5 billion. The company is focused on developing world models—AI systems designed to learn from reality itself, rather than solely from language. This field currently has fewer participants than generative AI, though that may soon change. "In six months, every company will call itself a world model to raise funding," remarked one observer with a smile, noting that AMI Labs aims to stand apart by fundamentally pursuing an understanding of the real world.

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Potential applications span various sectors, beginning with healthcare through a partnership with digital health startup Nabla, where LeCun now serves as chairman. Nabla’s CEO reached a similar conclusion about the limitations of large language models (LLMs), where inaccuracies or hallucinations could carry serious risks. However, developing a practical alternative based on LeCun’s Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture (JEPA), introduced in 2022, will take time. "AMI Labs is a very ambitious project, because it starts with fundamental research. It’s not your typical applied AI startup that can release a product in three months, have revenue in six months and make $10 million in annual recurring revenue in 12 months," he explained. Transitioning world models from theory to commercial use could indeed require years.

Despite this longer timeline, companies in the world-model space are attracting significant investment. SpAItial closed a $13 million seed round—unusually large for a European startup—while Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs secured an impressive $1 billion just last month. AMI Labs now joins this group with even more funding than initially anticipated; reports from last December suggested a target of €500 million, but the final raise reached approximately €890 million, likely bolstered by its standout team.

Beyond LeCun’s role as chairman and the CEO’s entrepreneurial background, the leadership includes Meta’s VP for Europe Laurent Solly as COO, alongside prominent researchers Saining Xie as chief science officer, Pascale Fung as chief research & innovation officer, and Michael Rabbat as VP of world models. The high level of interest allowed the startup to be selective with investors, prioritizing alignment in vision and relevant expertise.

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The funding round was co-led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions. Additional participants included several other funds, industry-aligned backers, and individual investors such as Tim and Rosemary Berners-Lee, Jim Breyer, Mark Cuban, Mark Leslie, Xavier Niel, and Eric Schmidt. Beyond strategic value, this capital provides substantial runway to support AMI Labs’ primary expenses: computing power and talent acquisition.

The company plans to prioritize quality over quantity as it builds teams in four key locations: its Paris headquarters; New York, where LeCun teaches at NYU; Montreal, where Rabbat is based; and Singapore, both to attract AI talent and to be near future clients in Asia. Although revenue generation is not an immediate goal, AMI Labs intends to engage early with potential customers. "We are developing world models that seek to understand the world, and you can’t do that locked up in a lab. At some point, we need to put the model in a real-world situation with real data and real evaluations," the CEO noted. When ready, the startup will work with partners on deployments—Nabla is the first disclosed partner expecting early access, but certainly not the last. "This may explain the presence and strong interest of certain industrial players and potential partners in the investment round," he added.

Alongside lead investors and angel backers, AMI Labs is supported by corporate investors including NVIDIA, Samsung, Sea, Temasek, and Toyota Ventures, as well as French entities Association Familiale Mulliez, Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault, and Publicis Groupe. Other participants include Aglaé Lab, Alpha Intelligence Capital, Artémis, Bpifrance Digital Venture, New Legacy Ventures, SBVA, and ZEBOX Ventures.

Converting these investments into commercial applications will take time. Staying true to LeCun’s principles, AMI Labs is committed to publishing its research along the way. "We will also make a lot of code open source," said the CEO, who previously worked at Meta’s FAIR research lab. In an environment where open research is becoming "increasingly rare," the founders remain strong believers. "We think things move faster when they’re open, and it’s in our best interest to build a community and a research ecosystem around us."