Yann LeCun Launches Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs with €3 Billion Pre-Launch Valuation Target
Yann LeCun, Meta's outgoing chief AI scientist and 2018 Turing Award winner, is in early-stage talks to raise €500 million for his new startup, Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) Labs, targeting a €3 billion valuation ahead of its January 2026 launch. The company, headquartered in Paris, will focus on developing "world models"—AI systems capable of understanding physics, maintaining persistent memory, and planning complex actions, diverging from large language model-centric approaches. Applications include robotics, transportation, and broader physical-world interactions. Alexandre LeBrun, founder of French health-tech firm Nabla (valued at over $1 billion after recent funding), is set to join as CEO, with LeCun serving as executive chairman. Despite Meta not investing, a partnership is planned to grant the tech giant access to emerging technologies for commercialization.
Startup's Mission
AMI Labs aims to pioneer next-generation superintelligent AI through world models that comprehend the physical environment, enabling advanced reasoning, prediction, and interaction beyond text-based systems. This aligns with LeCun's long-standing critique of over-reliance on LLMs for achieving human-level or superintelligence, emphasizing architectures like Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture (JEPA) for efficient learning from video and spatial data.
People Behind It
- Yann LeCun: Founder and executive chairman; Turing Award laureate for deep learning contributions.
- Alexandre LeBrun: Incoming CEO; previously founded Nabla (AI medical assistant) and worked as a research engineer at Meta's FAIR lab in Paris, collaborating closely with LeCun.
Brief History of Yann LeCun
Born in 1960 near Paris, LeCun earned an engineering degree from ESIEE Paris (1983) and a PhD from Sorbonne Université (1987). He pioneered convolutional neural networks (CNNs) at AT&T Bell Labs (1988–1996), developing early handwriting recognition systems. Postdoctoral work with Geoffrey Hinton in Toronto shaped his deep learning focus. He joined NYU as a professor in 2003, founding its Center for Data Science (2012–2014). Recruited by Meta (then Facebook) in 2013, he established and led FAIR, driving open-source advancements like PyTorch while serving as chief AI scientist until his announced departure at year-end 2025.
Brief History of Alexandre LeBrun
Alexandre LeBrun is a French serial entrepreneur and engineer specializing in conversational AI and natural language processing. He holds a BS in Computer Science from École Polytechnique and an MSEE in Software Engineering and Cognitive Sciences from Télécom Paris (1997–1999). His early career included founding Asiance, a digital agency in Korea/Japan, and VirtuOz (2002), a chatbot pioneer acquired by Nuance Communications in 2013. In 2013, he co-founded Wit.ai, a Y Combinator-backed platform for building voice and text interfaces, acquired by Facebook in 2015.
He then joined Facebook/Meta, serving as Head of Engineering at Facebook AI Research (FAIR) in Paris from 2015 to 2018, collaborating closely with Yann LeCun. In 2019, LeBrun co-founded Nabla, an AI assistant for healthcare professionals that automates clinical documentation; the company raised over $120 million and achieved significant growth. As of December 2025, he is transitioning from Nabla CEO to CEO of Yann LeCun's new startup, Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) Labs, while remaining Nabla's chairman and chief AI scientist. LeBrun also authored the open-source Duckling library during his Meta tenure.
References
- Financial Times (original report): "Meta’s Yann LeCun targets €3bn valuation for AI start-up" – https://www.ft.com/content/d88729c0-c44f-4530-b888-bafa29ee0446
- Reuters: "Meta's Yann LeCun targets $3.5 billion valuation for new AI startup, FT reports" – https://www.reuters.com/business/metas-yann-lecun-targets-35-billion-valuation-new-ai-startup-ft-reports-2025-12-18/
- Fortune: "Yann LeCun is targeting a $3.5 billion valuation for his new startup that hasn’t even launched yet" – https://fortune.com/2025/12/19/yann-lecun-ami-labs-ai-startup-valuation-meta-departure/