Reported 5 months ago
In the midst of the global AI wave, renowned scientist Fei-Fei Li, often referred to as the 'AI expert,' founded a new startup called World Labs in April. Within just four months, the company's valuation has exceeded $1 billion. World Labs has already completed two rounds of funding, with investors including Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Canadian venture capital firm Radical Ventures. The most recent funding round raised approximately $100 million. Li, born in Beijing in 1976 and raised in Chengdu, Sichuan, made a name for herself as a leading AI scientist at Stanford University. She is known for creating the large-scale visual database ImageNet, laying the foundation for reliable object recognition in computer vision technology. Li has previously held roles as the head of AI at Google Cloud and as a board member of Twitter (now X), providing advice to policymakers in the White House. World Labs, founded by Li, aims to create spatial intelligence in AI by developing human-like visual data processing technology, enabling computers to perceive and act in a 3D world. The Financial Times reported that PitchBook, a market research firm, recorded over $27 billion in investments in American AI startups in the second quarter, accounting for half of all startup fundraising during the same period. Another startup, Skild AI, which is creating a robot brain, recently completed a new round of funding. Robots using their models exhibit some reactive capabilities, such as retrieving dropped objects. Skild AI announced that they raised $300 million in Series A funding, with a valuation of $1.5 billion, and investors including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, SoftBank Group of Japan, and Sequoia Capital.
Source: YAHOO