{"id":55761,"date":"2026-02-18T09:02:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adsknews.autodesk.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=55761"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:07:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:07:34","slug":"autodesk-invests-in-world-labs","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/adsknews.autodesk.com\/en\/news\/autodesk-invests-in-world-labs\/","title":{"rendered":"Autodesk invests $200 million in World Labs, secures strategic advisor role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, I\u2019m pleased to share that Autodesk has made a strategic investment of $200 million in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldlabs.ai\/\">World Labs<\/a>, a frontier artificial intelligence (AI) research company co-founded by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/fei-fei-li-4541247\/\">Dr. Fei-Fei Li<\/a> (CEO), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/justin-johnson-41b43664\/\">Justin Johnson<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/christoph-lassner-475a669b\/\">Christoph Lassner<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ben-mildenhall-86b4739b\/\">Ben Mildenhall<\/a>.<span class=\"m-0 p-0 d-block c_69e8400c685f3\">&nbsp;<\/span><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"2026-02-05_AUTODESK_MARBLE_SOCIAL_v9 Video\" src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.net\/embed\/iframe\/gsmv67wsc8?dnt=1#?secret=G9P2ag9M9z\" data-secret=\"G9P2ag9M9z\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"500\" height=\"625\"><\/iframe> This investment reflects our shared conviction that the most powerful AI should expand what people can imagine, design, and build rather than replace them. <\/p>\n<h3>Why physical-world AI matters now<\/h3>\n<p> Large language models (LLMs) have made remarkable progress. But for the industries Autodesk serves, real impact requires AI that understands space, structure, materials, physics, and time. Designing a bridge, a complex part, or an immersive experience demands intelligence that can reason in 3D, persist over time, and support iterative, human-driven ideas.<span class=\"m-0 p-0 d-block c_69e8400c685f7\">&nbsp;<\/span>Through our investment in World Labs, Autodesk is advancing physical-world AI, the next major step in applying digital intelligence to how the world is designed and built.<span class=\"m-0 p-0 d-block c_69e8400c685f9\">&nbsp;<\/span>Autodesk brings more than four decades of deep expertise in geometry, simulation, and the workflows professionals rely on to design and make the world. World Labs research focuses on spatial intelligence through multimodal world models that can understand and generate realistic, persistent 3D environments. Together, we see an opportunity to advance deep technical exploration of physical-world AI, grounded in the work our customers are doing and real outcomes. <span class=\"m-0 p-0 d-block c_69e8400c685fb\">&nbsp;<\/span>Dr. Li puts it well: \u201cIf AI is to be truly useful, it must understand worlds, not just words. Worlds are governed by geometry, physics, and dynamics, and reconciling the semantic, spatial, and physical is the next great frontier of AI. Autodesk has long helped people think spatially and solve real-world problems and, together, we share a clear purpose: building physical AI that augments human creativity and puts more powerful tools in the hands of designers, builders, and creators.\u201d <\/p>\n<h3>Forging a different path for AI<\/h3>\n<p> There is no shortage of investment flowing into AI today; much of it focused on ever-larger models, centralized platforms, and hyperscale infrastructure. That path will undoubtedly produce important breakthroughs. Our investment in World Labs represents a different path, focused on solving the hardest problems in designing, building, and operating the physical world, guided by human needs and domain expertise rather than scale alone. <\/p>\n<h3>Why this collaboration matters to Autodesk<\/h3>\n<p> This strategic relationship enables us to serve as an advisor to World Labs and have close collaboration at the research and model level. The focus is on exchanging ideas, shaping direction, and strengthening Autodesk\u2019s long-term AI foundation. <\/p>\n<h3>Looking ahead<\/h3>\n<p> The world faces extraordinary capacity challenges, from infrastructure and housing to manufacturing. Addressing them will require new levels of efficiency and collaboration between humans and intelligent systems. <span class=\"m-0 p-0 d-block c_69e8400c685fd\">&nbsp;<\/span>When AI can truly understand physical reality, it becomes a powerful partner in how the world is imagined, designed, and built. Our investment in World Labs is a deliberate choice to pursue a more human-centered path for AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why we\u2019re partnering to bring AI to the physical world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":51939,"template":"","categories":[374,375,29,376],"adsk_tags":[416],"class_list":["post-55761","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-business","categories-innovation","categories-our_company","categories-perspectives","adsk_tags-artificial-intelligence"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Autodesk invests $200 million in World Labs | Autodesk News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Autodesk is making a strategic investment in World Labs to bring AI to the physical world.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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