Andreessen Horowitz-Backed 'Godmother Of AI' Fei-Fei Li Quietly Builds $1B Startup In 4 Months

Fei-Fei Li, a prominent figure in the field of artificial intelligence and co-director of Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute, has swiftly established a billion-dollar startup, adding to the intense competition in the tech industry to commercialize AI.

What Happened: In just four months, Li, who is often referred to as the “godmother of AI,” founded a company named World Labs, reported Financial Times on Wednesday. The startup has already secured significant funding from prominent tech investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and AI fund Radical Ventures, valuing the business at over $1 billion.

World Labs recently completed a funding round, raising approximately $100 million. The startup is focused on developing “spatial intelligence” in AI by creating human-like processing of visual data, a field Li discussed in a TED talk in April.

Investor interest in AI has surged following OpenAI‘s launch of the ChatGPT chatbot in November 2022, with over $27 billion being invested in U.S. AI startups in the last three months alone, accounting for about half of all startup funding in that period.

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Li, who is on partial leave from Stanford, where she co-directs the Human-Centered AI Institute, has contributed to the development of ImageNet, a large image dataset that advanced computer vision technology.

Why It Matters: The rapid valuation of World Labs underscores the intense interest and investment in the AI sector. This trend is not isolated. Recently, Jeff Bezos-backed Anthropic and Menlo Ventures launched a $100 million fund to support early-stage AI startups, increasing competition with OpenAI.

Bezos and Masayoshi Son‘s SoftBank Group led a $300 million funding round for Skild AI, a startup developing a “general-purpose brain” for AI systems. This investment highlights the growing focus on foundational AI technologies.

Moreover, SoftBank’s acquisition of Graphcore, a UK-based chipmaker, further emphasizes the importance of AI infrastructure.

Earlier this month, private equity firm Index Ventures secured over $2 billion for AI-focused investments, reflecting the bullish sentiment in the AI investment climate.

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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote