Yann LeCun Leaves Meta, Raises $1 Billion for World Models Startup AMI Labs

Yann LeCun spent years arguing that large language models were a dead end for true intelligence. Now he is putting serious money behind that conviction. AMI Labs, the startup he cofounded after departing Meta, has raised $1.03 billion at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation to build what the AI research community calls "world models."

Beyond Language

World models are AI systems that learn from physical reality rather than text. Instead of predicting the next token in a sentence, they try to build internal representations of how the world actually works. LeCun has championed this direction for years through his Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture (JEPA), first proposed in 2022.

"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."

A Long Game

Unlike most AI startups racing to ship products, AMI Labs is openly admitting this is fundamental research that could take years to commercialize. LeBrun was blunt about it: this is not an applied AI startup that ships in three months and hits $10 million ARR in a year.

The company is not entirely disconnected from real-world applications though. Its first partner is Nabla, a digital health startup where LeBrun previously served as CEO. Healthcare is a natural fit since LLM hallucinations can have life-threatening consequences, exactly the kind of problem world models aim to solve.

The Team and the Money

AMI Labs assembled a heavyweight roster. LeCun serves as chairman. The team includes Meta's former VP for Europe Laurent Solly as COO, Saining Xie as chief science officer, Pascale Fung as chief research and innovation officer, and Michael Rabbat as VP of world models.

The round was co-led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions. Backers also include NVIDIA, Samsung, Toyota Ventures, and Temasek, along with notable angels like Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Mark Cuban, and Tim Berners-Lee.

Open Research

In a move that sets AMI Labs apart from the increasingly closed AI industry, the company plans to publish papers and open-source much of its code. "We think things move faster when they are open, and it is in our best interest to build a community and a research ecosystem around us," LeBrun said.

The startup will operate from four hubs: Paris (headquarters), New York (where LeCun teaches at NYU), Montreal, and Singapore. The funding gives AMI Labs meaningful runway for its two biggest expenses: compute and talent.