Yann LeCun seeks EUR 500 M for AI start‑up valued at EUR 3 B; Alex LeBrun to step down
Yann LeCun is courting investors for a fresh AI venture that could bring in €500 million, pushing the company’s valuation to €3 billion. The capital push comes as Nabla, the Paris‑based lab co‑founded by Alex LeBrun, tightens its ties with AMI Labs through a strategic research partnership. While the fundraising narrative dominates headlines, the leadership shuffle quietly reshapes the organization’s future.
LeBrun, who has steered Nabla since its inception, is set to leave his CEO seat, a move that coincides with the new financing round and the deeper collaboration with AMI Labs. The board’s endorsement suggests the change is not abrupt but part of a broader plan to align executive roles with the venture’s expanding ambitions. Stakeholders will be watching how the transition influences both the partnership’s research agenda and the startup’s path to market.
The leadership transition was confirmed by the company, which stated, "As part of a planned, board-supported transition, Nabla co‑founder and CEO Alex LeBrun will transition from his role to become CEO of AMI Labs."
The leadership transition was confirmed by the company, which stated, "As part of a planned, board-supported transition, Nabla co-founder and CEO Alex LeBrun will transition from his role to become CEO of AMI Labs." Nabla has also entered into a strategic research partnership with AMI Labs. LeBrun will remain Nabla's chair and chief AI scientist, while Delphine Groll, Nabla's co-founder and COO, will lead the company during the search for a permanent CEO. Under the partnership, Nabla will receive early access to AMI Labs' world model technologies, which the company plans to use to develop agentic AI systems for healthcare that are intended to meet FDA certification requirements.
The funding talks follow November's report that LeCun was planning to leave Meta after 12 years to start his own AI company. LeCun is a French-American scientist, a Turing Award winner, and one of the pioneers of modern AI. AMI Labs will develop AI systems based on "world models"--architectures that can understand the physical world rather than relying primarily on language data.
The systems are intended for applications including robotics and transport. The work builds on research led by LeCun at Meta, involving AI models trained on video and spatial data, with features such as persistent memory, reasoning and planning. Meta will not invest directly in the start-up but plans to form a partnership that would give it access to the technology for commercial use, according to the report.
LeCun's departure comes amid broader changes to Meta's AI strategy under CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has shifted focus toward faster product development to compete with companies such as OpenAI and Google. Meta has scaled back longer-term research at its Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research unit, which LeCun founded in 2013, and laid off about 600 staff from the group in October.
Will the €500 million raise materialise? The talks are still at an early stage, and the €3 billion pre‑launch valuation could shift as negotiations progress. Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, plans to exit the company by year‑end, a move that coincides with the formation of a new venture dubbed AMI Labs.
A bold move. Alexandre LeBrun, co‑founder of French health‑tech firm Nabla, is slated to assume the CEO role, a transition the board has already endorsed. A strategic research partnership between Nabla and AMI Labs has been announced, linking the two entities on collaborative projects.
Yet, the financial terms and final ownership structure remain unclear. Investors will likely weigh LeCun’s reputation against the nascent status of the startup. The announcement offers a glimpse of what could become a sizable player in AI, but without a closed funding round it's still uncertain what the true scale will be.
For now, the venture sits in a preparatory phase, awaiting concrete commitments before any definitive impact can be assessed.
Further Reading
- Yann LeCun in talks to raise €500M for new AI startup at €3B valuation - MLQ.ai
- Yann LeCun's AMI Startup and the Future of AI Infrastructure - AInvest
- Papers with Code - Latest NLP Research - Papers with Code
- Hugging Face Daily Papers - Hugging Face
- ArXiv CS.CL (Computation and Language) - ArXiv
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Common Questions Answered
How much funding is Yann LeCun seeking for the new AI venture and what valuation is attached to it?
Yann LeCun is courting investors for a fresh AI venture with a target raise of €500 million. The fundraising would push the company’s pre‑launch valuation to approximately €3 billion, though this figure could change as negotiations progress.
What role will Alex LeBrun assume after stepping down as CEO of Nabla?
Alex LeBrun will transition from his CEO position at Nabla to become the CEO of AMI Labs, the newly formed venture. He will also retain his titles as Nabla’s chair and chief AI scientist, maintaining a strategic influence over both organizations.
Who is leading Nabla during the search for a permanent CEO and what is her background?
Delphine Groll, Nabla’s co‑founder and chief operating officer, will lead the company while a permanent CEO is sought. Groll has been instrumental in Nabla’s operations since its inception and is now overseeing the interim leadership period.
What does the strategic research partnership between Nabla and AMI Labs entail?
The partnership aligns Nabla’s health‑tech expertise with AMI Labs’ AI research capabilities, fostering joint development projects. Under the agreement, both entities will collaborate on cutting‑edge AI solutions while sharing leadership resources, such as Alex LeBrun’s dual roles.