AI niche map
World model companies
Started September 28, 2026 · Updated October 6, 2026 · Presspool
Companies whose main product is a world model: an AI model that generates or simulates interactive, persistent 3D or physical environments, including world models built for robotics, games and simulation. Presspool has verified 10 companies on this map so far. Each entry is taken from the company's own website and confirmed by an independent source, both linked on the entry. No company pays to be listed.
| Company | What it does | Latest announced financing |
|---|---|---|
| AMI Labs | AMI develops action-conditioned world models that learn abstract representations of real-world sensor data so AI systems can predict the consequences of actions and plan, for uses such as robotics, industrial control and healthcare. | $1.03B, Seed (March 10, 2026) |
| World Labs | World Labs builds world models that perceive, generate and interact with 3D worlds; its first product, Marble, generates persistent, editable 3D worlds from text, images, video or panoramas. | $1B (February 18, 2026) |
| Runway | Runway's GWM-1 is a family of general world models that simulate reality in real time and can be controlled interactively, with variants for explorable environments, avatars and robotics. | $315M, Series E (February 10, 2026) |
| Odyssey | Odyssey is an AI lab building foundation world models that learn physics, dynamics and cause and effect to simulate the world for robotics, gaming, autonomous driving and other uses. | $310M, Series B (June 17, 2026) |
| Decart | Decart builds real-time AI models and infrastructure, including Oasis, a real-time interactive world model generating physically accurate environments for robotics, vehicles and drones, and Lucy, a world-editing model. | $300M (May 18, 2026) |
| General Intuition | General Intuition describes itself as a frontier lab for acting in space and time, training world and action models that let agents learn in simulated environments, with a focus on video games. | $220 million (September 29, 2026) |
| Moonlake AI | Moonlake describes itself as the world model and simulation layer for deploying robots, providing physically accurate environments, digital twins and simulation-based policy evaluation. | $28M, Seed (October 1, 2025) |
| SpAItial | SpAItial builds Spatial Foundation Models, AI that generates and reasons about the appearance and physics of real and imagined 3D environments. | $13M, Seed (May 26, 2025) |
| Overworld | Overworld makes Waypoint 2, a world model that turns a text or image prompt into an explorable world that runs locally on a PC or via streaming, plus a toolset for building first-person games from a prompt. | $4.5M, Pre-seed (January 20, 2026) |
| Manifold AI | Manifold AI builds next-generation world models, including RoboScape for robotics and AirScape for drones, and applies them to AI hardware such as robots and XR devices. | Round (June 18, 2026) |
Which of these companies AI names
Between October 5, 2026 and October 6, 2026, Presspool asked the 8 questions below on ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews and recorded 48 answers. A company counts when an answer names it or cites its website. Answers vary from run to run, so each count is a dated sample, not a verdict.
| Company | Named or cited in | ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini | Copilot | Google AI Mode | Google AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMI Labs | 21 of 48 answers | 5 of 8 | 5 of 8 | 4 of 8 | 2 of 8 | 3 of 8 | 2 of 8 |
| World Labs | 36 of 48 answers | 7 of 8 | 7 of 8 | 5 of 8 | 4 of 8 | 7 of 8 | 6 of 8 |
| Runway | 18 of 48 answers | 2 of 8 | 6 of 8 | 4 of 8 | 1 of 8 | 2 of 8 | 3 of 8 |
| Odyssey | 22 of 48 answers | 4 of 8 | 6 of 8 | 6 of 8 | 1 of 8 | 2 of 8 | 3 of 8 |
| Decart | 20 of 48 answers | 4 of 8 | 6 of 8 | 4 of 8 | 2 of 8 | 1 of 8 | 3 of 8 |
| General Intuition | 14 of 48 answers | 2 of 8 | 5 of 8 | 3 of 8 | 2 of 8 | 1 of 8 | 1 of 8 |
| Moonlake AI | 0 of 48 answers | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 |
| SpAItial | 1 of 48 answers | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 1 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 |
| Overworld | 0 of 48 answers | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 |
| Manifold AI | 1 of 48 answers | 1 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 | 0 of 8 |
What changed since the week of September 28, 2026
- Overworld was not named or cited this week, after 1 of 54 answers the week before.
Sources the AI apps cited most for these questions
- worldlabs.ai: 15 of 48 answers
- techcrunch.com: 9 of 48 answers
- forbes.com: 8 of 48 answers
- nvidia.com: 8 of 48 answers
- reddit.com: 7 of 48 answers
- signalsinbox.com: 7 of 48 answers
- deepmind.google: 6 of 48 answers
- wikipedia.org: 6 of 48 answers
- changxu.dev: 5 of 48 answers
- kucoin.com: 5 of 48 answers
- substack.com: 5 of 48 answers
- themesis.com: 5 of 48 answers
- arxiv.org: 4 of 48 answers
- youtube.com: 4 of 48 answers
- ai.cc: 3 of 48 answers
What counts as World models
A company joins this map when its own site describes World models as its main product and an independent source confirms it. Out of scope: world-model projects inside large labs, text-to-video generators that do not position their product as a world model, and robotics companies whose product is the robot. Definitions are versioned; this is version 1. Corrections need a public source: see Contact.
Questions this map tracks
- Which companies are building world models?
- What are the leading world model startups?
- What is a world model in AI and who is building them?
- Which world model startups have raised funding recently?
- What is the best world model for robotics simulation?
- Which AI companies generate interactive 3D worlds?
- What are the alternatives to World Labs?
- Best world model companies to watch
Changes
- September 28, 2026: Map started with 10 verified companies.