Yann LeCun's artificial intelligence startup AMI has secured €890 million in funding from investors including Nvidia, Samsung, Toyota, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos, according to multiple reports. AMI aims to develop AI systems that understand the physical world, moving beyond large language models, the company said in a press release. The financing was co-led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions, according to research. Other notable backers include Mark Cuban, Eric Schmidt, and Xavier Niel, research indicates. AMI aims to build AI systems that understand the world, have persistent memory, can reason and plan, and are controllable and safe, the company said. LeCun, Meta's former chief AI scientist, cofounded AMI with Michael Rabbat, Laurent Solly, Pascale Fung, Alexandre LeBrun, and Saining Xie, according to research. The startup will have offices in Paris, Montreal, Singapore, and New York, and LeCun will continue working as a NYU professor in addition to leading AMI, the company said. This is LeCun's first commercial endeavor since leaving Meta in November 2025, research indicates. LeCun's startup represents a bet against labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta that believe scaling large language models will lead to human-level intelligence, according to research. At a press conference, LeCun said that most human reasoning is grounded in the physical world, not language, and that AI world models are necessary for human-level intelligence. He also described extending LLMs to human-level intelligence as "complete nonsense." AMI aims to work with companies in manufacturing, biomedical, robotics, and other industries, LeCun said. For example, AMI could build a world model of an aircraft engine to help optimize efficiency, minimize emissions, or ensure reliability, he added.
In a separate development, French AI company Mistral raised $830 million to build a data centre near Paris running on over 13,000 NVIDIA chips, according to multiple reports. The data centre will have compute power up to 44 megawatts, and Mistral plans to build 200 megawatts of compute capacity across Europe by next year, reports said.
Anysphere, the company behind the coding assistant Cursor, is in talks to raise about $2 billion at a valuation over $50 billion, according to multiple reports. The talks are ongoing and the exact amount and valuation have not been confirmed.
Most human reasoning is grounded in the physical world, not language, and that AI world models are necessary for human-level intelligence.
Cloudsmith, a universal artifact management platform, raised a $72 million Series C financing led by TCV, according to multiple reports. The company provides a platform for managing software artifacts across the development lifecycle.
Synera raised a $40 million Series B round led by Revaia, according to multiple reports. Synera's platform orchestrates the full industrial engineering value chain, from design to manufacturing.
Waiv announced a $33 million financing round to accelerate global deployment of its AI precision testing platform, according to multiple reports. Waiv spun out from Owkin, a medical AI company.
Extending LLMs to human-level intelligence is 'complete nonsense'.
Alva Labs launched an AI-driven recruitment system and raised €20 million through a convertible loan, according to multiple reports. The company was founded by three EQT veterans.
Halter, which uses AI-powered collars to manage livestock remotely, is in talks to raise fresh funding led by Founders Fund, aiming for a $2 billion valuation, according to multiple reports. The talks are not yet finalized.
A London-based business raised £2 million to develop an AI-powered coffee vending machine, according to multiple reports. The machine uses AI to customize coffee orders based on user preferences.
The exact valuation of AMI is unclear, with reports varying between €890 million and over $1 billion, possibly due to currency conversion or additional commitments. The discrepancy may be a rounding difference; €890 million is approximately $970 million. The status of Halter's funding talks and the timeline for Mistral's data centre expansion also remain unconfirmed.