World Labs gets $1 billion, $200 million from Autodesk, to bring global models into 3D workflow

Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs has secured a $200 million investment from software design giant Autodesk as part of a larger $1 billion round from backers, including AMD, Emerson Collective, Fidelity, Nvidia and others.

World Labs, which emerged from stealth in 2024 with $230 million at a $1 billion valuation, declined to say whether the latest round boosted its valuation. However, reports a month ago indicated that it was aiming to raise a $5 billion valuation.

The partnership between World Labs and Autodesk will see the two companies collaborate to explore how World Labs models – AI systems that can create and think about immersive 3D environments – can work alongside Autodesk tools, and vice versa, starting with a focus on entertainment use cases.

For World Labs, Autodesk’s investment is a signal that its product has commercial appeal. The startup’s first global modeling product, Marble, which was released last November, allows users to create editable and downloadable 3D environments.

Autodesk is one of the largest developers of 3D computer-aided design software. Its platform supports architectural, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and entertainment workflows. This focus on the built world makes investing in advanced spatial AI a natural extension of its core business.

Or as he told me in a statement: “Autodesk has long helped people think spatially and solve real-world problems, and together we share a clear goal: to build physical AI that enhances human creativity and puts more powerful tools in the hands of designers, builders, and creators.”

As part of the deal, Autodesk will serve as an advisor to World Labs, and the two will collaborate at a “research and model level.”

Daron Green, chief scientist at Autodesk, told TechCrunch that the partnership is still in its early days, so the exact form it will take has not yet been determined.

“You can expect us to consume their models or for them to consume our models in different settings,” Green said.

He reasoned that customers might want to start with a sketch based on the World Labs model (e.g., office layout) and then move on to specific aspects of the design (e.g., office layout), which is where Autodesk’s technology might come in.

“Similarly, you may want to take something you designed in our store [platform]and put it in the context that you create through one [World Labs’] “Demanding,” Green said.

Green added that data sharing is not part of the agreement.

Green said the two companies plan to start with media and entertainment use cases. Most companies building global models – including Google DeepMind and Runway – see gaming and interactive entertainment as a primary market entry strategy.

Autodesk already works with most major media production companies and trains models for character animation.

“These are close to global models,” Green said. “It’s a description of an animal in the world responding to physical constraints like time, and perhaps the terrain it needs to traverse. So there’s a physical understanding in the model, and you can see how that can be combined [with World Labs’ tech]. Not only are you moving the dog, but you are giving him a world in which he can now interact.

The partnership with World Labs supports Autodesk’s broader push to integrate more AI features across its software suite. The company is developing “neural CAD,” a new type of generative AI model trained on engineering data that can reason about entire components and systems. Simply put, it can create working 3D models, not just images, while understanding how these designs work in the real world.

Autodesk’s neural CAD models are already being integrated into the company’s product design and architecture products as a step toward more advanced spatial intelligence. But World Labs models can help extend this capability beyond individual design files toward more comprehensive digital representations of the physical world.

Green believes that various AI systems, including large language models, universal models, and neural CAD will be combined in the future to improve designs for Autodesk customers.

“If AI is to be truly useful, it must understand worlds, not just words,” Lee said in the statement. “Worlds are governed by geometry, physics, and dynamics, and reconciling semantics, spatiality, and physicality is the next great frontier for artificial intelligence.”

This article has been updated to include more details about the World Labs increase.