Meta's most-famous ex-employee Yann LeCun announces raising seed funding of $1.03 billion, that he says may have set a 'Europe record'

Yann LeCun, former Chief AI Scientist at Meta and the “Godfather of AI” said his startup Advanced Machine Intelligence has raised $1.03 billion in seed funding, which he said may represent a record for Europe. Sharing a post on X (formerly Twitter), LeCun wrote: “Unveiling our new startup Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI Labs). We just completed our seed round: $1.03B / 890M€, one the largest seeds ever, probably the largest for a European company”. “We’re hiring,” he added.


According to a Reuters report, the funding values the company at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation. The startup aims to build artificial intelligence systems designed for reasoning, planning and “world models.”



“AMI is developing world models that learn abstract representations of real-world sensor data, ignoring unpredictable details, and that make predictions in representation space,” the company said. “AMI will advance AI research and develop applications where reliability, controllability, and safety really matter, especially for industrial process control, automation, wearable devices, robotics, healthcare, and beyond,” it added.

Funding round and investors

Advanced Machine Intelligence said the $1.03 billion seed round was co-led by investment firms Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital and Bezos Expeditions.

The company said the funding will support the development of AI systems focused on reasoning, planning and decision-making in complex environments.

Yann LeCun’s role at Meta

Yann LeCun joined Meta in 2013 to create Facebook AI Research, later known as FAIR. He was one of the company’s most visible AI leaders before leaving at the end of 2025.


Meanwhile, Meta has continued expanding its artificial intelligence efforts. In June 2025, the company reorganised its AI work under a new division called Meta Superintelligence Labs, led by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI.