Cisco Bets on Spatial AI With Investment in World Labs Technologies

Cisco Investments has officially announced a strategic investment in World Labs Technologies, Inc., a spatial intelligence AI startup founded by computer vision pioneer Dr. Fei-Fei Li.

The deal underscores Cisco’s ambition to position itself as a critical infrastructure provider for the AI era.

Key highlights of the announcement

• Date & Location: November 20, 2025, San Jose, California
• Investor: Cisco Investments, the venture capital arm of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO).
• Startup: World Labs Technologies, Inc., founded by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, renowned for her groundbreaking work in computer vision.
• Focus area: Spatial intelligence and Large World Models (LWMs) — advanced AI systems that allow machines to perceive, understand, and interact with the physical world in 3D.
• Strategic importance: Cisco sees spatial intelligence as transformative for industries such as robotics, gaming, smart factories, and beyond.

What World Labs is building

• Large World Models (LWMs): Foundational AI models designed to bridge the gap between virtual and real-world environments, enabling AI to generate, reason within, and interact with 3D worlds.
• Marble model: World Labs recently unveiled Marble, its first commercial world model, capable of generating 3D environments from text, video, and layout prompts; considered ahead of competing models like Google’s Genie and Decart.
• Vision: Push AI beyond language-based systems into spatially intelligent systems that can perceive and act in the physical world.

Why Cisco’s investment matters

• Infrastructure role: Cisco positions itself as the backbone for AI innovation, providing networking, cloud, and security infrastructure to support spatial intelligence applications.
• Largest strategic backing: Cisco’s investment is reportedly the largest strategic support World Labs has received so far, signaling strong confidence in the company’s trajectory.
• Industry impact: Spatial intelligence could reshape multiple sectors:
  • Robotics: Smarter navigation and interaction in real-world environments.
  • Gaming & AR/VR: Immersive, dynamic 3D experiences.
  • Smart factories: AI systems with spatial awareness for automation and safety.

Risks & considerations

• Undisclosed investment size: Cisco did not reveal the financial details, leaving uncertainty about the scale of commitment.
• Early-stage technology: LWMs and spatial intelligence are still emerging, meaning commercial adoption timelines could be long.
• Competitive landscape: Google, Meta, and other tech giants are also racing to develop spatial AI models, which could intensify competition.

In short: Cisco’s investment in World Labs is a bet on the next frontier of AI — spatial intelligence. By backing Dr. Fei-Fei Li’s startup, Cisco is aligning itself with the development of Large World Models that could redefine how machines interact with the physical world.
Would you like me to break down how LWMs differ from traditional large language models (LLMs) so you can see why Cisco views this as such a transformative leap?