Abu Dhabi-based Shorooq has announced its participation in a monumental $1.03 billion seed funding round for AMI Labs (Advanced Machine Intelligence), a new venture founded by AI pioneer and Turing Award winner Yann LeCun. The investment places the MENA firm at the forefront of a global push to redefine the foundations of artificial intelligence.
A Landmark Seed Round for a New AI Paradigm
The funding round is one of the largest seed financings ever recorded for an AI startup, valuing the Paris-headquartered AMI Labs at approximately $3.5 billion pre-money. The investment was co-led by a global consortium of top-tier firms including Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions.
Shorooq joins an elite group of global investors in the round, including Temasek, Nvidia, SBVA, Mark Cuban, and Eric Schmidt. The significant capital injection underscores the immense conviction in AMI Labs’ ambitious vision to build a new class of AI systems capable of deep reasoning and interaction with the physical world.
Pioneering World Model Intelligence
Founded by Yann LeCun, who previously served as Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, AMI Labs is pioneering an alternative to the large language models that currently dominate the AI landscape. The company is focused on developing “world models”—AI systems designed to learn from spatial and real-world data, enabling them to understand cause and effect rather than simply predicting text or images.
This architecture aims to unlock more robust capabilities in reasoning and planning for AI agents. AMI Labs is led by CEO Alexandre LeBrun, former co-founder of healthcare AI company Nabla, with LeCun serving as Executive Chair. The company plans to initially target enterprise applications in sectors like manufacturing, aerospace, robotics, and biomedicine.
Shorooq’s Strategic Global AI Play
For Shorooq, the investment marks a significant move in its global AI strategy, which focuses on bridging emerging technology ecosystems across the US, Europe, and the Middle East. The firm’s participation signals a growing trend of MENA capital playing a proactive role in shaping the future of frontier technology on a global scale.
Dr. Bilal Baloch, Partner at Shorooq, commented on the investment, stating, “AMI Labs represents one of the most ambitious efforts to redefine the foundations of artificial intelligence. Yann LeCun’s vision for world-model architectures could fundamentally expand what machines are capable of understanding and executing in the physical world. We are proud to support this next wave of AI innovation alongside some of the world’s leading investors.”
About Shorooq
Founded in 2017, Shorooq is a multi-strategy investment firm engineered around technology. Its strategies span venture capital, credit, private equity, and real assets, all guided by a tech-native lens. This integrated approach allows the firm to invest across the capital stack in businesses reshaping key sectors, from fintech and software to AI and infrastructure. With a founder-centric principle, Shorooq blends global investment standards with a strong on-the-ground presence across the MENA and Asia regions.
Source: Zawya
