Yann LeCun Launches AMI Labs, Eyes $3.5B+ Valuation with World Model Focus

Legendary AI researcher Yann LeCun has officially unveiled his long-rumored startup: Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI Labs). While LeCun serves as Executive Chairman, he tapped Alex LeBrun—former CEO of medical AI platform Nabla—to lead the company as CEO. Both Nabla and LeCun confirmed the move through official announcements this week.

The startup is already pursuing an ambitious fundraising target. According to Financial Times reports citing deal sources, AMI Labs is seeking €500 million ($586 million) at an initial €3 billion ($3.5 billion) valuation, even before launching operations. This valuation marks a bold ask, though not unprecedented in the current AI investment climate where notable figures command significant capital.

Valuation in Context: How AMI Labs Stacks Up

For perspective, former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab secured a $12 billion seed valuation last year despite having less established credentials than LeCun. Similarly, when Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs debuted in August 2024, it raised $230 million at a $1 billion valuation—considered substantial at the time but now dwarfed by current benchmarks. LeCun’s track record as NYU professor, former VP and Chief AI Scientist at Meta, and Turing Award winner for his reinforcement learning contributions positions him in rarefied company.

World Models: An Alternative Path Forward

AMI Labs’ core focus is developing world model AI—a fundamentally different approach from large language models. Rather than predicting text tokens, world models aim to simulate environmental understanding, enabling cause-and-effect reasoning and scenario prediction. Proponents argue this architecture addresses LLMs’ hallucination vulnerabilities stemming from their non-deterministic, generative nature.

Other heavyweight players including Google DeepMind and researchers like Elad Gil’s network are similarly investing in world model development, indicating genuine competition for this emerging frontier.

The Alex LeBrun Factor

LeBrun brings substantial credentials to the CEO role. He pioneered multi-modal AI at Nuance Communications during the early 2010s—the era when Nuance powered Apple’s nascent Siri technology. He subsequently launched and exited multiple natural language processing startups, including one acquired by Facebook, where he later directed the AI division before founding Nabla in 2018.

Under LeBrun’s leadership, Nabla achieved impressive momentum, more than tripling annual recurring revenue this year with ambitions targeting $1 billion. Nabla’s investor roster—featuring LeCun alongside venture players like Tony Fadell’s Build Collective, HV Capital, Highland Europe, and Cathay Innovation—signals confidence in LeBrun’s execution capability.

Nabla’s Next Chapter

Nabla announced it will search for a permanent CEO replacement while co-founder and COO Delphine Groll assumes interim leadership. Notably, Nabla has already committed to integrating AMI’s models as they develop, creating a direct partnership between the two entities. This strategic alignment, combined with LeBrun’s dual role transition, suggests careful structuring rather than a clean separation.

Nabla has accumulated $120 million in total funding, including a $70 million Series C round in June, establishing it as a meaningful player in the AI infrastructure space.