Fei-Fei Li
InvestorFounderSequoia Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University · Co-founder & CEO at World Labs · Board of Directors at Twitter
Palo Alto, CA
Writes $100K – $5M checks · typically $1.5M
FoundedWorld Labs
Find your path to Fei-Fei
2,230 people in our graph share verified history with Fei-Fei — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Deep NisharunlockedFei-Fei: together at Stanford University (2015–2018)
×7Fei-Fei: together at Stanford University
×2Fei-Fei: together at Google
×2Fei-Fei: together at Princeton University
About
Fei-Fei Li created ImageNet, the dataset that ignited the deep-learning revolution, and now leads World Labs, the spatial-intelligence startup she co-founded in 2024 that raised a $1 billion round in February 2026 at a reported $5 billion valuation. Born in Beijing and raised in Chengdu, she immigrated to New Jersey at 15, helped run her parents' dry-cleaning shop through Princeton (BA Physics, 1999), and took a Caltech PhD in electrical engineering. She directed the Stanford AI Lab, served as Chief Scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud, co-founded the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and the nonprofit AI4ALL, sat on Twitter's board, and wrote the memoir The Worlds I See. TIME has twice named her to its TIME100 AI list; much of the field calls her the godmother of AI.
Likely email· guessed from name + firm domain, not firm-published
- f•••@worldlabs.aireveal70% confident
Invests in
AI & Machine LearningHealthtechRobotics
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Co-founded and serves as CEO of World Labs, an AI company focused on spatial intelligence and generative AI. Co-founded AI4ALL, a nonprofit for inclusive AI education, and chairs its board.
- Education
- Earned a B.A. in physics from Princeton University in 1999 with High Honors. Received a PhD in electrical engineering from Caltech in 2005 and a master's there in 2001. Holds honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University and Harvey Mudd College.
- Boards
- Serves as Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations since 2023. Was a member of the National AI Research Resource Task Force for the White House OSTP and NSF (2021-2023). Serves on the Board of Directors of the Computer Vision Foundation.
- Communities
- Is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Is a Fellow of ACM and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
- Awards
- Was named TIME Magazine Person of the Year in 2025 as one of the eight architects of AI. Won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in 2025. Received the VinFuture Prize in 2024 and the Intel Lifetime Achievements Innovation Award in 2023. Was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as one of the Great Immigrants in 2016.
- More
- Wrote the popular science memoir 'The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration and Discovery at the Dawn of AI,' published by Macmillan. Invented ImageNet and the ImageNet Challenge, a foundational large-scale dataset and benchmark for AI. Was a member of the California Future of Work Commission for the Governor of California in 2019-2020.
Mentioned above: the Caltech mafia →
From Fei-Fei's own website — common ground for a warm intro.
Co-founder & CEO at World Labs
Intro paths
→
In turn, Fei-Fei can intro founders to World Labs's investors below.
World Labs's investors · 19
Alpha Square GroupNew YorkAndreessen HorowitzMenlo Park · $500K – $50M checks · since 2026Cisco InvestmentsSan JoseFidelity InvestmentsBostonFoundersXSilicon ValleyFoundersX VenturesSilicon ValleyGreycroftNew York · $100K – $5M checksKhosla VenturesMenlo Park · $5K – $50M checksNew Enterprise Associates (NEA)Menlo Park · $200K – $40M checksNVenturesSanta ClaraNVIDIASanta Clara · since 2026Play Time VenturesSan FranciscoRadical VenturesToronto · $1M – $25M checksSalesforce VenturesSan Francisco · $5M – $50M checksSherpalo VenturesMenlo ParkSound VenturesSanta MonicaSV AngelSan FranciscoThe Venture Reality FundRedwood City · $100K – $500K checksValkyrie Ventures Management, LlcPark City
Co-founders at World Labs
Board of Directors at Twitter
Intro paths
→
In turn, Fei-Fei can intro founders to Twitter's investors below.
Twitter's investors · 2
Experience
- World LabsCofounder, CEOcurrent2024 — presentSan Francisco, California, United States
- Stanford UniversitySequoia Professor of Computer Sciencecurrent2009 — presentStanford, CA
- Stanford UniversityStanford AI Lab Director2014 — 2018Stanford, CA
- Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)Denning Family Co-Director, Senior Fellowcurrent2018 — present
- MasterClassMasterClass Instructorcurrent2026 — present
- AI4ALLCo-Foundercurrent2017 — present
- TwitterMember, Board of Directors2020 — 2022
- GoogleChief Scientist of AI/ML; Vice President2017 — 2018Mountain View, CA
- Princeton UniversityAssistant Professor2006 — 2009Princeton, NJ
- University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignAssistant Professor2005 — 2006Urbana-Champaign, IL
Investments
Board seats
Per the investor's own website.
Podcasts & interviews
featuring Fei-Fei LiColleagues at Stanford University
Alan Ma
Campus Lead at The MBA Fund
Alex Gould
General Partner at The Valley Fund
Aman Verjee
General Partner at Practical Venture Capital
Amit Etkin
Founder at Alto Neuroscience
Amy Chang
Founder, Accompany at Decibel Partners
Anand Lalwani
Angel at Wispr AI
Andrew Ng
Managing General Partner at AI Fund
Anjney Midha
General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz
Network11
Naval RavikantScout
Co-founder of AngelList; angel investor
Guillermo RauchScout
Founder & CEO of Vercel
Adam D'AngeloScout
Angel
Andy PriceScout
Founder, General Partner at Artisanal Ventures
Scott BelskyScout
Investor at capitalB
Shardul ShahScout
Investor at Index Ventures
John Doerr
Chairman of Kleiner Perkins
Brenton Fargnoli
Partner at AlleyCorp
Faraz Fatemi
Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
Ramin Niroumand
Founder and Managing Partner at Embedded Capital
Rob Toews
Partner at Radical Ventures
Investors connected to Fei-Fei in public investor directories — a warm-intro map.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Fei-Fei Li?
- Fei-Fei Li created ImageNet, the dataset that ignited the deep-learning revolution, and now leads World Labs, the spatial-intelligence startup she co-founded in 2024 that raised a $1 billion round in February 2026 at a reported $5 billion valuation. Born in Beijing and raised in Chengdu, she immigrated to New Jersey at 15, helped run her parents' dry-cleaning shop through Princeton (BA Physics, 1999), and took a Caltech PhD in electrical engineering. She directed the Stanford AI Lab, served as Chief Scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud, co-founded the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and the nonprofit AI4ALL, sat on Twitter's board, and wrote the memoir The Worlds I See. TIME has twice named her to its TIME100 AI list; much of the field calls her the godmother of AI.
- Where does Fei-Fei Li work?
- Fei-Fei Li is Co-founder & CEO of World Labs and Sequoia Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and Board of Directors at Twitter.
- What does Fei-Fei Li invest in?
- Fei-Fei Li invests in AI & Machine Learning, Healthtech, Robotics.
- What check size does Fei-Fei Li write?
- Fei-Fei Li typically writes checks of $100K – $5M.
- What companies did Fei-Fei Li found?
- Fei-Fei Li founded World Labs.
- What boards does Fei-Fei Li sit on?
- Fei-Fei Li holds tracked board seats at Twitter.
- Where did Fei-Fei Li go to school?
- Fei-Fei Li studied at Caltech (Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Electrical and Electronics Engineering); Princeton University (Bachelor of Arts - BA, Physics).
- What awards has Fei-Fei Li received?
- Was named TIME Magazine Person of the Year in 2025 as one of the eight architects of AI. Won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in 2025. Received the VinFuture Prize in 2024 and the Intel Lifetime Achievements Innovation Award in 2023. Was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as one of the Great Immigrants in 2016.
- What podcasts and interviews feature Fei-Fei Li?
- Tracked appearances include "Spatial Intelligence Is AI's Next Frontier", "With spatial intelligence, AI will understand the real world", "Fei-Fei Li on The Worlds I See", and 1 more.
Founder mafias
Stanford University mafia1,932
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Peter ThielJ.D.Founded PayPal +1Reid HoffmanB.S.Founded LinkedIn +2David SacksB.A.Founded YammerKeith RaboisB.A.Founded OpendoorGarry TanBSFounded Y Combinator +1Joe LonsdaleBSFounded Opto +5
+ 1,925 more
Caltech mafia152
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Dario AmodeiProgress towards BSFounded AnthropicBill GrossBachelor of Science (B.S.)Founded X1 +5Chris VoigtPhDFounded Asimov +2Gil ElbazBSFounded TenOneTen Ventures +1Aditya RajagopalMaster of Science (MS)Founded Esperto Medical +1Chris DeanPhysicsFounded Benefitter +1
+ 145 more
Master Class mafia4
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Twitter mafia2
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Same school
Also attended Caltech231
Shaun MaguirePartner at Sequoia CapitalDario AmodeiCo-founder & CEO of AnthropicScott BillerInvestor at GV (Google Ventures)Seth LieblichInvestment Team at 8VCSusannah BarbeeVice President, Translational Immunology at Deerfield Management CompanyMarkus EnzelbergerPartner at Versant Ventures
+ 225 more
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Shared employers
Also worked at World Labs22
Helen LiangFounder & General Partner at FoundersX VenturesMarco DeMirozGeneral Partner & Co-founder at The Venture Reality FundBoris RevsinManaging Director at Tribe Capital FirstlookBrentt BaltimorePrincipal at GreycroftThomas JuengManaging Director at Samsung VenturesAbhishek ShuklaManaging Director at Prosperity7 Ventures
+ 16 more
Also worked at Stanford University1,044
Ann Miura-KoCo-founding Partner at FloodgateBalaji SrinivasanAngel investor and founder of The Network SchoolMartin CasadoGeneral Partner at Andreessen HorowitzMike KriegerCo-founder of Instagram; Chief Product Officer at AnthropicAndy FangCo-founder & CTO of DoorDashRyan SheaCo-founder of Blockstack (Stacks)
+ 1,038 more
Also worked at Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)17
Rohini KosogluVenture Partner at FusionEric HorvitzInvestor at Blue Tulip VenturesHeidi RoizenPartner at Threshold VenturesPaul DaughertyInvestor at Premji InvestChuen Hong LewPartner, Special Projects & Partnerships at Granite AsiaChristopher WanVice President at Bessemer Venture Partners
+ 11 more
