World Labs Raises $1B for Spatial AI
World Labs, an AI company advancing spatial intelligence, has raised $1 billion in a major funding round. The startup builds frontier AI world models that perceive, generate, reason about, and interact with 3D worlds. These models transform pixels into persistent, navigable 3D environments for storytelling, simulation, and creation. The capital will accelerate development of its Marble platform and World API.
Spatial AI Models Surge Forward
The timing reflects surging interest in multimodal AI beyond 2D generation. World Labs launched Marble in November 2025 and the World API in January 2026, highlighting the shift to interactive 3D capabilities. Partnerships with HTC VIVE, Unity, and Unreal Engine underscore real-world validation amid broader generative AI momentum.
Traditional 3D content creation remains labor-intensive, requiring artists and developers to manually model assets for gaming, VFX, and robotics. Current generative tools produce static images or short videos but fail to deliver consistent, editable 3D worlds navigable over time. This gap hampers scalability in AR/VR, virtual production, and simulation-heavy fields like architecture and health systems.
Marble Enables Multimodal World Generation
World Labs' Marble is a multimodal 3D world generator that creates, edits, and exports persistent environments from text, images, or video inputs. Unlike single-shot generators, it supports iterative editing and integration via the World API for apps. This addresses the persistence challenge, enabling uses from film VFX to robotic training.
The tight research-to-product loop differentiates World Labs. Case studies on its Labs page show applications across industries, from immersive media to design.
Massive Funding Signals Strategic Bet
The $1 billion round, backed by world-class investors, validates spatial intelligence as AI's next frontier. It provides growth capital to scale compute-intensive model training and expand API access. This positions World Labs to capture value in high-stakes sectors like gaming and robotics.
Partnerships Drive Early Traction
World Labs has secured integrations with leading platforms: HTC VIVE for XR experiences, Unity and Unreal Engine for game development. Public availability of Marble demonstrates product readiness. These moves signal fragmentation in spatial AI, with specialized models outpacing general-purpose LLMs.
Target markets span gaming/AR/VR (immersive media), art/film/VFX/virtual production, and robotics/architecture/design/health. Industry trends favor world models for simulation, as AI shifts from language to physical reasoning.
Founders Bring Visionary Expertise
World Labs was founded by AI pioneers including Fei-Fei Li, renowned for ImageNet and visual intelligence; Justin Johnson, expert in generative vision models; Christoph Lassner, specialist in human body modeling; and Ben Mildenhall, leader in neural radiance fields. Their track record from Stanford, Berkeley, and leading labs lends unmatched credibility to tackling 3D reasoning challenges.
With Marble live and API rolling out, World Labs eyes broader developer adoption across creative and industrial applications.