Cisco has invested in spatial computing startup World Labs, a company developing artificial intelligence systems that can understand and interact with three-dimensional physical environments. The investment amount was not disclosed by either firm.
The deal has been made through Cisco Investments, the venture capital arm of Cisco. The US networking company said the partnership aims to accelerate the development of Large World Models (LWMs), advanced AI systems designed to give machines spatial awareness and the ability to reason within 3D environments.
World Labs, founded by computer vision researcher Fei-Fei Li, is working on technology positioned as the next step beyond language-based AI models such as ChatGPT. The company says its research is focused on bringing AI systems closer to human-level spatial understanding, with applications expected in areas including robotics, autonomous systems, industrial automation and gaming.
Cisco Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel said the future of AI would involve systems capable of operating directly in the physical world. “The next great platform evolution in AI will be built around spatial intelligence,” Patel said in the announcement.
Fei-Fei Li, who serves as chief executive of World Labs, said the company aims to build AI systems that augment human capabilities and deliver practical real-world outcomes. World Labs’ work is centred on LWM technology, which trains AI to understand space, movement and physical context rather than only using text-based reasoning.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, an existing investor in World Labs, said spatial intelligence represented a major shift in AI research and called secure and scalable computing infrastructure a key requirement for the field.
Cisco described the investment as part of its strategy to expand its role in the wider AI ecosystem through internal research, partnerships, acquisitions and venture funding. In recent quarters the company has positioned itself as a provider of networking and data-centre infrastructure needed to train and deploy large-scale AI systems.
Neither Cisco nor World Labs provided a timeline for commercialising LWM-based applications. The companies also did not disclose whether the latest deal grants Cisco exclusivity, board representation or access rights to the underlying technology.
