Yann LeCun confirms world models AI startup seeking $3.5 billion valuation before launch

Yann LeCun confirms his new 'world model' startup, reportedly seeks $5B+ valuation | TechCrunch

Renowned AI scientist Yann LeCun confirmed on Thursday that he had launched a new startup -- the worst-kept secret in the tech world -- though he said he will not be running the new company as its CEO. His startup is called Advanced Machine Intelligence (or AMI) and has hired Alex LeBrun, co-founder and CEO of medical transcription AI startup darling Nabla, as its CEO. Nabla disclosed LeBrun's new job in a press release and LeCun confirmed it in a brief post on LinkedIn. "Yes, AMI Labs is my new startup. I'm the Executive Chairman. And Alex LeBrun is transitioning from CEO of Nabla to CEO of AMI Labs!" LeCun wrote. AMI Labs is also reportedly seeking to raise €500 million (about $586 million) at a €3 billion valuation (about $3.5 billion) right out of the gate, before even launching, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the dealmaking. Given the kind of money that VCs are throwing at AI startups founded by world-recognized AI scientists these days, that's not even an comparatively outrageous ask. For instance, former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's startup, Thinking Machines Lab, was valued at $12 billion for its seed round last year. And Murati doesn't have the same kind of street cred as LeCun. LeCun, a professor at New York University who was formerly VP and Chief AI Scientist Meta, won the prestigious A.M. Turing Award, for his work on reinforcement learning. The press release also confirms what everyone knew as well: that AMI Labs is working on world model AI. This is an alternative to LLMs where the AI attempts to understand its environment (aka the world) so it can simulate cause-and-effect and what-if scenarios to predict outcomes. World model creators believe it's the answer to LLMs' structural hallucination problems. LLMs can't be trusted never to fabricate info because it is their very nature to be "non-deterministic," aka creative. Top labs and startups like Google DeepMind and Fei-Fei Li's startup, World Labs, are also developing world models. By that comparison, the fundraising aspirations of AMI might appear a bit more audacious. When World Labs debuted, Li raised $230 million at a $1 billion valuation right out of the gate, which was considered a lot at the time. But that was way back in August 2024, or about 100 AI years ago. Meanwhile, Nabla says the company will be searching for a new CEO and will be, for now, run by its co-founder and COO, Delphine Groll, who has not been handed the permanent reins yet. Nabla also says it has signed a partnership to use AMI's models as they are developed. Nabla has raised $120 million in total from an all-star list of backers, including a $70 million Series C in June. LeCun is one of Nabla's investors, as is Tony Fadell's Build Collective, HV Capital, Highland Europe, and Cathay Innovation. Nabla's LeBrun could be a good choice for CEO. He's been building multi-modal AI since before anyone called it that, working at Nuance Communications in the early 2010s, which originally powered Apple's Siri in those long-ago years when Siri was wow technology. (Microsoft eventually acquired Nuance.) He founded and sold a couple of natural language startups, including one to Facebook. Then he ran Facebook's AI division before founding Nabla in 2018, according to his LinkedIn. LeBrun said that Nabla, a darling of the Paris-based AI startup community, is still growing well. "We have more than tripled our live ARR this year. Up next to $1B!" LeBrun wrote as he announced his departure as CEO. The founder says he will remain on at Nabla as chairman and Chief AI Scientist. Nabla declined further comment and AMI did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

AI whiz Yann LeCun is already targeting a $3.5 billion valuation for his new startup -- and it hasn't even launched yet | Fortune

The startup, Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs (AMI Labs), aims to create what LeCun calls "world models": AI systems that understand physics, maintain persistent memory, and plan complex actions rather than simply predicting the next word. The company plans to establish its headquarters in Paris early next year, with LeCun serving as executive chairman. He's even picked the CEO already: On Thursday, LeCun announced on LinkedIn that he's selected Alexandre LeBrun, founder of French health-tech startup Nabla, to take on the chief executive role. The €500 million (~$586 million) funding target would be one of the largest pre-launch raises in AI history, reflecting investor confidence in LeCun's vision of moving beyond today's large language models. "Silicon Valley is completely hypnotized by the current models of generative AI," LeCun explained earlier this month at the AI-Pulse conference. "To pursue this kind of new research, you have to go outside the Valley -- to Paris." LeCun's exit from Meta after 12 years -- five as founding director of Facebook AI Research and seven as chief AI scientist -- had been rumored for weeks before he confirmed it on Nov. 18. His departure coincides with Meta's strategic pivot toward more powerful LLM-based models under new chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, the 20-something founder of Scale AI. While Meta will not invest in AMI Labs, the companies plan to forge a partnership, allowing LeCun to continue his research while maintaining ties to his former employer. The spectacular valuation for a pre-revenue startup has amplified concerns about an AI investment bubble. Industry leaders have warned that excitement around AI may be outpacing business fundamentals, and LeCun's fundraising could test whether even the most respected names in the field can command premium valuations without proven commercial traction. The startup faces competition from well-funded European rivals like Black Forest Labs, valued at $4 billion, and Quantexa at $2.6 billion. LeCun's skepticism about AI's current direction has been clear. Earlier this year, during an appearance on Alex Kantrowitz's Big Technology podcast, he said "we are not going to get to human-level AI just by scaling LLMs," arguing they cannot achieve that milestone because they simply predict text rather than truly understand the world. His startup AMI Labs, on the other hand, aims to develop systems that observe and interact with the physical environment like humans do, potentially revolutionizing robotics, transportation, and healthcare. The French computer scientist, who won the 2018 Turing Award alongside Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, has long advocated for European AI talent. He convinced Meta to open its FAIR lab in Paris in 2015 and now argues the city offers the right environment for his next-generation research. LeCun's social media post announcing his departure emphasized continuity: "I am creating a startup company to continue the Advanced Machine Intelligence research program (AMI) I have been pursuing over the last several years with colleagues at FAIR, at NYU, and beyond." He described the goal as bringing about "the next big revolution in AI: systems that understand the physical world, have persistent memory, can reason, and can plan complex action sequences." The partnership with Nabla provides immediate applications for AMI's technology. The health-tech company will gain first access to world model technologies, enabling it to develop FDA-certifiable AI systems for healthcare. LeBrun's transition from Nabla CEO to AMI Labs CEO signals deep integration between the two companies, though he will remain chairman and chief AI scientist at Nabla.

Meta's Yann LeCun in Talks to Raise €500 Mn for New AI Start-Up at €3 Bn Valuation | AIM

The venture, called Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs, is expected to be announced in January. Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, is in early discussions to raise about €500 million ($586.00 million) for a new AI startup, a move that would value the company at roughly €3 billion ($3.5 billion) before its formal launch, the Financial Times reported. LeCun, who is set to leave Meta by the end of the year, has lined up Alexandre LeBrun, founder of French health-tech company Nabla, to serve as chief executive. The discussions are at a preliminary stage, and the valuation could change, the report added. The venture, called Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) Labs, is expected to be announced in January. LeCun will serve as the executive chair. The leadership transition was confirmed by the company, which stated, "As part of a planned, board-supported transition, Nabla co-founder and CEO Alex LeBrun will transition from his role to become CEO of AMI Labs." Nabla has also entered into a strategic research partnership with AMI Labs. LeBrun will remain Nabla's chair and chief AI scientist, while Delphine Groll, Nabla's co-founder and COO, will lead the company during the search for a permanent CEO. Under the partnership, Nabla will receive early access to AMI Labs' world model technologies, which the company plans to use to develop agentic AI systems for healthcare that are intended to meet FDA certification requirements. The funding talks follow November's report that LeCun was planning to leave Meta after 12 years to start his own AI company. LeCun is a French-American scientist, a Turing Award winner, and one of the pioneers of modern AI. AMI Labs will develop AI systems based on "world models" -- architectures that can understand the physical world rather than relying primarily on language data. The systems are intended for applications including robotics and transport. The work builds on research led by LeCun at Meta, involving AI models trained on video and spatial data, with features such as persistent memory, reasoning and planning. Meta will not invest directly in the start-up but plans to form a partnership that would give it access to the technology for commercial use, according to the report. LeCun's departure comes amid broader changes to Meta's AI strategy under CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has shifted focus toward faster product development to compete with companies such as OpenAI and Google. Meta has scaled back longer-term research at its Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research unit, which LeCun founded in 2013, and laid off about 600 staff from the group in October. His exit follows other senior departures from Meta's AI leadership. In May, vice president of AI research, Joelle Pineau, left the company and later joined Canadian AI start-up Cohere.

Meta's Outgoing AI Chief Yann LeCun Eyes $3.4 Billion Valuation For New Startup, In Talks For Over $500 Million Funding: Report - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Meta Platforms Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) outgoing AI chief, Yann LeCun is reportedly in discussions to secure €500 million ($560 million) in funding for his new AI startup, which will value the company at about €3 billion ($3.4 billion). LeCun to Launch Next-Gen AI Startup LeCun, who is set to leave Meta at the end of the year, is also considering appointing Alexandre LeBrun, the founder of French health tech startup Nabla, as the CEO of his new venture, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The new venture, Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs, is set to officially launch in January, with LeCun taking on the role of executive chair. The company will aim to build next-generation AI systems that can comprehend the physical world, targeting uses in areas such as robotics and transportation. LeCun's new startup aims to develop a next generation of superintelligent AI by creating "world models" that comprehend the physical environment, with potential applications in areas like robotics and transportation. His new AI architecture, created during his tenure at Meta, will be central to the startup's work. The system is designed to learn from videos and spatial data, retain long-term memory, and reason through and plan complex sequences of actions. Despite Meta not being an investor in the new company, it will form a "partnership" with LeCun's startup, granting the tech giant access to the technology for commercialization. See Also: Goldman Says 90% Of AI Spending Is Cash-Funded, Not Risky Debt: Don't Confuse CoreWeave 'Tail' Risks With Broader Market LeCun Exits Meta Amid AI Leadership Shift LeCun's departure from Meta to establish his own AI startup was first reported in November. His exit coincided with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's efforts to revamp the company's AI strategy, aiming to compete with industry leaders like OpenAI and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Hyperbolic CTO Yuchen Jin claimed Yann LeCun's departure from Meta was inevitable due to Mark Zuckerberg's support for Alexandr Wang and a shift in AI leadership, which limited LeCun's role. LeCun's new venture marks the latest in a wave of high-profile AI fundraisings this year. In April, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever secured $2 billion for his AI startup, Safe Superintelligence, giving the company a $32 billion valuation even before launching a product. In May, LeCun argued that AI won't advance simply by increasing data and computing power, emphasizing that systems must learn to understand the physical world rather than relying solely on scale. READ NEXT: Google Enlists Meta To Cut Nvidia Reliance Image via Shutterstock Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. GOOGAlphabet Inc$301.481.15%OverviewGOOGLAlphabet Inc$300.211.18%METAMeta Platforms Inc$651.610.32%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Meta AI Chief's Startup Seeks $3 Billion Valuation Before Launch | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. That's according to a report Thursday (Dec. 18) by the Financial Times (FT), which says this funding would value Yann LeCun's company -- called Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) Labs -- at around $3 billion before its official launch. LeCun, who announced his pending departure from Meta last month, has tapped Alexandre LeBrun, founder of French health tech startup Nabla, to serve as the startup's CEO, the report added, citing sources familiar with the matter. According to the report, the startup will focus on developing a new generation of superintelligent artificial intelligence systems by constructing what are known as "world models." These are AI models said to have the ability to understand the physical world and have a broad range of applications, like robotics and transport. AMI Labs will build on LeCun's efforts at Meta to create a new AI architecture that can learn about the world via videos and spatial data instead of just language, has persistent memory, can reason and can plan complex action sequences. As PYMNTS wrote last month, LeCun's decision to launch a new company comes as his old one faces turbulence in its artificial intelligence operations. Meta announced in October it would cut 600 jobs in its AI department to make it more agile, part of a move to create a unified TBD Lab to streamline product and research functions. Meta's AI spending has also drawn scrutiny from investors. The company's third-quarter earnings showed its total costs and expenses climbing 32% year over year to $30.7 billion. Capital expenditures came to $19.4 billion, a record quarterly high. Meta also projected full-year expenses of $116 billion to $118 billion and capex of $70 billion to $72 billion. Losing the scientist who helped build much of Meta's early credibility in the artificial intelligence space could cause even greater skepticism among investors, the report noted. "Meanwhile, Meta's AI ambitions come with execution risks," PYMNTS added. "CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called the company's mission 'building personal superintelligence for everyone,' while the company continues to spend on compute, data centers and AI talent with unclear near-term monetization."

Meta's chief AI scientist LeCun looking to raise €500M for new startup: report (META:NASDAQ)

Meta Platforms' (META) chief AI scientist Yann LeCun is looking to raise €500M for his new startup that will focus on "world models," the Financial Times reported. The €500M capital raise would value the company -- which will be known as Advanced Machine LeCun aims to advance AI systems beyond language models by developing world models capable of reasoning, memory, physical understanding, and complex planning, potentially offering significant technological breakthroughs. Meta will not invest directly, but will partner and allow access to innovations, potentially boosting AMI Labs' resources and credibility without financial backing. Unlike most focus on language models, AMI Labs prioritizes AI that understands the physical world and can perform complex actions beyond current models' capabilities.