Cisco Investments, the venture capital arm of Cisco, has made a strategic investment in World Labs Technologies, a fast-rising spatial intelligence AI startup founded by prominent AI researcher Dr. Fei-Fei Li. The move strengthens Cisco’s push into next-generation AI infrastructure while supporting World Labs’ efforts to build AI systems capable of reasoning about and interacting with the physical world.
World Labs is positioning spatial intelligence as the next major evolution in artificial intelligence. Instead of focusing solely on text-based or image-based understanding, spatial AI enables machines to interpret 3D environments, navigate physical space, and interact with objects in ways that mirror human perception. These capabilities hold enormous potential for industries such as robotics, gaming, autonomous systems, industrial automation, and immersive digital experiences.
The investment is World Labs’ largest strategic funding to date, signalling strong confidence in its approach to building Large World Models (LWMs)—AI models designed to understand and reason about the physical world much like Large Language Models reason about text.
Cisco positions itself for the next AI platform shift
Cisco says spatial intelligence represents the next major platform shift in AI. With AI systems increasingly moving off the cloud and into real-world environments—from warehouses to hospitals to manufacturing plants—there is rising demand for scalable, secure infrastructure capable of supporting autonomous machines, intelligent devices, and real-time physical interaction.
“The next great platform evolution in AI will be built around spatial intelligence,” said Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco. He noted that joining forces with World Labs will help accelerate the development of AI agents and devices that can transform industries and boost productivity.
A shared vision for physical AI
World Labs’ co-founder and CEO, Dr. Fei-Fei Li, said the company is driven by a mission to advance AI systems that augment human potential and deliver real-world impact. She underscored Cisco’s role as a leader in scalable and secure infrastructure—an essential foundation for the next wave of AI deployment across physical environments.
The investment also drew support from Martin Casado, General Partner at a16z, who highlighted the shift from linguistic intelligence to spatial intelligence as the next revolutionary leap in AI. Casado noted that large world models will fundamentally change how AI systems understand and interact with the world.
Supporting the infrastructure of physical AI
For Cisco, the partnership reinforces its multi-layered innovation strategy across R&D, acquisitions, investments and AI partnerships. As spatial intelligence becomes a defining capability for next-gen AI, Cisco aims to cement its role as the infrastructure backbone powering secure, reliable and trustworthy AI across both digital and physical environments.
By backing World Labs’ pioneering work, Cisco is betting on a future where AI agents operate not just on screens, but in factories, hospitals, supply chains, and homes—expanding the scope of automation, enhancing safety, and opening new frontiers for intelligent systems.
