Yann LeCun’s AMI Labs raises $1.03 billion to build world models
Source: TechCrunch
Funding Announcement
AMI Labs, the new venture co‑founded by Turing Prize winner Yann LeCun after he left Meta, has raised $1.03 billion at a $3.5 billion pre‑money valuation. AMI is working on world models—AI that learns from reality, not just from language.
“My prediction is that ‘world models’ will be the next buzzword,” AMI Labs CEO Alexandre LeBrun told TechCrunch. “In six months, every company will call itself a world model to raise funding.”
LeBrun said this with a smile because he believes AMI Labs is fundamentally different: its goal is to understand the real world. This could have applications in healthcare, where AMI Labs’ first partner will be Nabla, the digital‑health startup of which he is now chairman.
- As CEO of Nabla, LeBrun reached the same conclusion as LeCun on the limitations of large language models (LLMs)—hallucinations can have life‑threatening repercussions.
- He also knows it will take a while for the startup to offer a viable alternative based on JEPA (Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture), proposed by LeCun in 2022.
“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,” LeBrun said. In contrast, it could take years for world models to go from theory to commercial applications.
Other World‑Model Players
| Company | Funding | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SpAItial | $13 M seed round | Unusually large for a European startup |
| World Labs (Fei‑Fei Li) | $1 B | Secured last month |
| AMI Labs | $1.03 B | More funding than initially rumored |
The French AI lab was reportedly seeking €500 M last December, but ended up raising ≈ €890 M, likely thanks to its team:
- Yann LeCun – Chairman
- Alexandre LeBrun – CEO (track record as an entrepreneur)
- Laurent Solly – Meta’s VP for Europe, COO
- Saining Xie – Chief Science Officer
- Pascale Fung – Chief Research & Innovation Officer
- Michael Rabbat – VP of World Models
TechCrunch Event
| Location | Date |
|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | October 13‑15, 2026 |
Funding Round Details
The round was co‑led by:
- Cathay Innovation
- Greycroft
- Hiro Capital
- HV Capital
- Bezos Expeditions
Participating investors & angels include:
- Tim & Rosemary Berners‑Lee
- Jim Breyer
- Mark Cuban
- Mark Leslie
- Xavier Niel
- Eric Schmidt
Strategic backers:
- NVIDIA, Samsung, Sea, Temasek, Toyota Ventures
- Association Familiale Mulliez, Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault, Publicis Groupe
- Aglaé Lab, Alpha Intelligence Capital, Artémis, Bpifrance Digital Venture, New Legacy Ventures, SBVA, ZEBOX Ventures
Use of Funds & Roadmap
-
Compute and talent are the two main cost centers.
-
LeBrun will prioritize quality over quantity, building teams in four key locations:
- Paris – Headquarters
- New York – LeCun teaches at NYU
- Montreal – Rabbat’s base
- Singapore – Talent recruitment & proximity to Asian clients
-
No immediate revenue plans, but early customer engagement is expected.
“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,” LeBrun said.
Nabla is the first disclosed partner; more industrial partners are expected.
Open‑Source & Publication Commitment
- AMI Labs will publish papers as it progresses.
- “We will also make a lot of code open source,” said LeBrun (formerly of Meta’s FAIR).
- The founders believe openness accelerates progress and helps build a research ecosystem around the company.
About the Author
Anna Heim – writer and editorial consultant.
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annatechcrunch [at] gmail.com - Freelance reporter at TechCrunch since 2021, covering AI, fintech, SaaS, pricing, and global VC trends.
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Anna Heim is a former LATAM & Media Editor at The Next Web, a startup founder, and a Sciences Po Paris alum. She is fluent in multiple languages, including French, English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.