AMI Labs, the new AI startup founded by Yann LeCun, is led by a team of experienced AI researchers and executives with deep ties to both academia and industry. LeCun, a Turing Award-winning computer scientist and former chief AI scientist at Meta, serves as the company’s executive chairman. He is not the CEO, a role held by Alex LeBrun, a seasoned AI entrepreneur and former co-founder and CEO of Nabla, a health-focused AI startup based in Paris and New York. LeBrun’s move to AMI Labs follows a strategic partnership announced in December between Nabla and AMI, under which Nabla granted LeBrun access to AMI’s emerging world model technology in exchange for his transition to the role of Chief AI Scientist and chairman at Nabla. This arrangement allowed LeBrun to take the CEO position at AMI while maintaining strong ties to the healthcare AI space. LeBrun previously worked at Meta’s AI research lab, FAIR, where he reported directly to LeCun after Meta acquired his earlier startup, Wit.ai. His experience in building practical AI systems for real-world applications aligns closely with AMI’s mission. He will be joined by Laurent Solly, who stepped down as Meta’s vice president for Europe in December, further strengthening the startup’s leadership team with former Meta insiders. AMI Labs is focused on developing “world models”—AI systems designed to understand, predict, and interact with the physical world through continuous learning, reasoning, and persistent memory. The company positions its approach as a contrast to current large language models, which LeCun and his team believe suffer from limitations such as hallucinations, poor reasoning under uncertainty, and lack of control—especially critical in high-stakes domains like healthcare, robotics, industrial automation, and wearable devices. The startup plans to license its technology to industry partners while also contributing to open research through publications and open-source initiatives. LeCun intends to maintain his professorship at New York University, teaching one course annually and mentoring PhD and postdoctoral researchers. Headquartered in Paris, AMI Labs is building a global presence with offices in Montreal, New York, and Singapore. The choice of Paris as the headquarters was welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who praised LeCun’s decision and pledged full support for the company’s success. The move strengthens Paris’ growing reputation as a major AI hub, joining other prominent players like Mistral AI, H, and Meta’s own FAIR lab. AMI’s name stands for Advanced Machine Intelligence, and its name pronunciation—“a-mee,” echoing the French word for “friend”—is a deliberate nod to its founder’s heritage and vision of AI as a collaborative, trustworthy partner in the real world. The company is reportedly in talks with major investors including Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, 20VC, Bpifrance, Daphni, and HV Capital, with a potential valuation of $3.5 billion.