SAN FRANCISCO, CA, July 23, 2026 Repost (Reuters press) -- FoundersX Ventures, today announced its investment in World Labs, a breakthrough company building foundational physical AI models that deliver true spatial intelligence — the missing link between today’s digital AI and the physical world.
Led by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, — the visionary “Godmother of AI” and author of the acclaimed book The Worlds I See — World Labs is redefining what’s possible when AI truly understands and simulates reality. Co-founded with leading experts Justin Johnson, Christoph Lassner, and Ben Mildenhall, the company is creating world models that go far beyond current offerings from Big Tech.
“We backed World Labs because they are solving one of the hardest and most consequential problems in AI: building persistent, physically coherent 3D world models that can reason about space, objects, and causality,” said Dr. Helen Liang, founder and managing partner of FoundersX Ventures. “While Google’s Genie 3 excels at generating interactive video environments and Nvidia’s platforms are powerful for robotics simulation, World Labs’ Marble stands apart with its ability to create high-fidelity, editable, and temporally consistent 3D worlds from minimal inputs. This is the kind of foundational spatial intelligence needed to bridge digital and physical realities at scale.”
In the rapidly evolving physical AI space, several players are advancing world models and simulation. Google’s Genie series focuses on video-based interactive environments, while Nvidia leverages its Omniverse and robotics platforms for high-fidelity industrial simulation. Other notable efforts include startups like Physical Intelligence (Pi) working on embodied AI. What makes World Labs special is its deep technical rigor combined with a fundamental focus on persistent, editable 3D spatial models that maintain physical laws and long-term consistency. Powered by Dr. Fei-Fei Li’s unparalleled expertise in visual intelligence, World Labs is uniquely positioned to deliver generalizable world models that excel not just in narrow simulations but in open-ended, creative, and real-world applications.
Marble, World Labs’ flagship multimodal world model, represents a major technical leap. It can generate rich, persistent 3D environments from text, images, videos, or panoramas. Users can interactively edit objects, expand scenes, combine worlds, and maintain physical consistency — capabilities that enable rapid iteration and real-world applicability.
Recent updates have further strengthened Marble with precise layout control, AI-native editing tools, and exports to Gaussian splats, meshes, and video. These advancements make it uniquely powerful for complex, long-horizon tasks.
The investment in World Labs perfectly complements FoundersX’s AI-Space portfolio, which includes SpaceX, Turion Space, FS2, Charge Robotics, and Mbodi AI. By adding world-class spatial simulation capabilities, FoundersX is building a full-stack ecosystem for the emerging orbital compute and physical AI economy.
World Labs’ technology carries transformative potential across industries:
Filmmaking and Visual Effects: Rapid generation of photorealistic virtual sets and environments, slashing production timelines and costs while expanding creative freedom.
Gaming: Faster world-building and more immersive, persistent game environments.
Robotics Training: High-fidelity simulation that dramatically improves sim-to-real transfer for advanced embodied AI systems like mBodi.
Architecture, Design, Automotive & Aerospace: Accurate 3D modeling, virtual prototyping, and scenario testing at unprecedented speed and realism.
“Dr. Fei-Fei Li’s lifelong mission has been to help machines truly see and understand the world,” said Dr. Helen Liang. “World Labs is turning that vision into reality. We are proud to support this team as they unlock new frontiers where AI doesn’t just generate content — it understands and shapes the physical world around us.”
As the AI industry shifts from language and 2D generation toward embodied and spatial intelligence, World Labs is exceptionally well positioned to lead. For FoundersX, this investment is another strategic step toward the multi-trillion-dollar convergence of AI, space, and physical infrastructure.
World Labs Acquires SceniX
Earlier this week, Dr. Fei-Fei Li shared an exciting acquisition - SceniX is joining World Labs.
"When we founded World Labs, our North Star was spatial intelligence. Marble was our first step: world models that generate explorable, persistent 3D environments. But I've always said that one of the deepest promises of spatial intelligence is embodied intelligence — robots that understand the space around them, anticipate the consequences of their actions, and act reliably in the physical world.
That's why I'm thrilled to welcome Yunzhu Li, Changxi Zheng, Sonny Xiaochen Hu, and the entire SceniX team. They are among the very best researchers and builders working at the intersection of simulation and robotics, and their technology has already been proven in live deployments on real hardware.
In our recent taxonomy of world models, we described three functions - rendering, simulating, and planning - and argued that the knowledge required for all three is largely the same. Together with SceniX, we're building toward the moment those lines truly collapse: AI that can understand, simulate, and operate across both virtual and physical worlds.
Our mission hasn't changed. Robotics is one of the most important proving grounds for spatial intelligence, and this is the next chapter of the same journey. Welcome, SceniX!" Posted Dr. Fei-Fei Li on LinkedIn.