Dive Brief:
- San Francisco-based contech giant Autodesk has invested $200 million in World Labs, an artificial intelligence startup focused on physical AI and generating 3D models, according to a Feb. 18 blog post from Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost.
- The cash marks the largest startup investment in Autodesk’s history, said Andy Lopez, public relations and communications manager for the company.
- The funding infusion takes World Labs’ total raise to $1 billion, according to a news post from the startup. The investment spotlights a trend where real-world AI tools have garnered increasing support from the construction industry.
Dive Insight:
San Francisco-based World Labs’ AI-based tool, Marble, enables users to create 3D environments and objects from images, video or text.
In the blog post, Anagnost focused on the future of physical-world AI, or AI that can impact how humans design and build structures in the real world.
Alongside that emphasis, Anagnost called out the groundswell of funding that’s heading toward other, more common facets of AI, such as hyperscalers and large language models. Anagnost said that Autodesk’s investment signals something else.
“Our investment in World Labs represents a different path, focused on solving the hardest problems in designing, building, and operating the physical world, guided by human needs and domain expertise rather than scale alone,” Anagnost wrote.
Indeed, startups that have focused on AI for real-world tools have seen success. Irvine, California-based FieldAI, a startup that focuses on physical artificial intelligence for robots, announced over the summer that it had raised $405 million across two consecutive funding rounds.
Other investors in World Labs include AMD, Emerson Collective, Fidelity Management & Research, NVIDIA and Sea, according to World Labs’ news release.
NVIDIA in particular has been active in the construction space. Through its venture capital arm NVentures, the company participated in FieldAI’s funding rounds and the $270 million Series B of Bedrock Robotics, which retrofits traditional heavy machinery with autonomous technology.
With Autodesk’s investment into World Labs, the firm will also serve as a strategic advisor. In that role, Autodesk will focus on exchanging ideas and strengthening its long-term AI foundation, per Anagnost’s blog post.
Autodesk sees robotics and physical AI becoming more embedded in construction workflows, Lalith Subramanian, global vice president of product and engineering, told Construction Dive via email.
“As AI becomes capable of reasoning in 3D, it will power more intelligent automation across the built environment—from design and prefabrication to progress tracking during construction, to inspection, reality capture, and digital twins,” Subramanian said.
The investment follows staff reductions at the contech giant. On Jan. 22, Autodesk announced that it would lay off approximately 7% of its workers globally, or around 1,000 jobs. The impact was most felt in its customer-facing sales teams.
