Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs (AMI Labs), a new startup founded by Meta’s former AI chief, has raised $1.03 billion in Europe’s largest seed round, with backing from Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

The new venture will pursue “a new breed of AI systems that understand the world, can reason and plan, and are controllable and safe,” according to a statement.

It is launching with a dozen employees across offices in Paris, New York, Singapore, and Montreal. AMI Labs has a pre-money valuation of $3.5 billion following the initial investment.

The $1.03 billion seed round is the largest ever in Europe and second only globally to US startup Thinking Machines Lab, which raised $2 billion in June last year, according to Dealroom data.

The company’s first fundraising was led by France’s Cathay Innovation, American venture capital firm Greycroft, London-based Hiro Capital, Germany’s HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions, owned by the Amazon founder.

US chipmaker Nvidia, Singapore’s Temasek, and Seoul-based SBVA were also among the first investors.

LeCun, a French-born scientist and Turing Award winner, joined Meta in 2013 to found Facebook AI Research, later known as FAIR, and became one of the company's most prominent AI leaders before departing at the end of 2025.

He told news agency Reuters that AMI Labs plans to build systems capable of reasoning and planning in complex real-world settings. Current AI approaches based on predicting the next word or pixel will not produce broadly capable intelligent agents by themselves, he said.

The company eyes industries as wide as manufacturing, aerospace, and pharmaceuticals as its primary areas for expansion, with consumer electronics further along the way.

"We want to become the main provider of intelligent systems, regardless of what the application is," LeCun said.

LeCun will serve as an executive chair at the new venture, which will be led by Alexandre LeBrun, a former chief executive of French startup Nabla. Laurent Solly, who was Meta’s vice president for Europe, is joining as the chief operating officer.

While investor interest surges, European AI companies remain far behind their American counterparts in terms of fundraising and commercialization of their technologies.

Paris-based Mistral is Europe’s most valuable AI company, with a valuation of just under $12 billion, compared to San Francisco-based OpenAI, which is one of the most valuable private tech companies in the world, valued at $500 billion.

Other European firms that recently benefited from increased investor interest in AI include two British driverless tech firms, London-based Wayve and Oxford University spin-off Oxa, both of which recently held successful investment rounds backed by the likes of Nvidia.

---

Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.