Ashton Kutcher's venture capital firm, Sound Ventures, is making a significant bet on artificial intelligence (AI) with its latest investment in Fei-Fei Li's World Labs. The startup, founded by the Stanford professor dubbed the "Godmother of AI," has raised $230 million from investors, valuing the company at over $1 billion.

Sound Ventures, co-led by general partners Guy Oseary and Effie Epstein, has been actively investing in AI startups through its $265 million AI fund. The firm has already backed notable companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, Stability AI, and Magic.dev.

Kutcher confirmed that Sound Ventures hasn't sold any of its OpenAI shares, indicating the firm's confidence in the company's growth potential. The venture capital firm is also interested in startups that bring AI technology to new physical form factors or operating systems.

"We're really curious about the space," said Oseary, highlighting Sound Ventures' interest in companies like Humane, the makers of the AI pin, and Rabbit, an AI hardware startup co-founded by Jesse Lyu. Epstein added that the firm sees the potential for AI-powered hardware to disrupt established players like Apple.

Sound Ventures is also eyeing an investment in the new AI device being built by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive in collaboration with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. While no deal has been signed, Kutcher confirmed that the firm had "had a conversation with Jony today."

The investment in World Labs and Sound Ventures' focus on AI-powered hardware startups signal a significant shift in the tech industry, with AI poised to revolutionize various sectors. As Kutcher noted, "Somebody's going to have a breakthrough in this space and it's going to be really helpful and really profound for all of us."