The shape of the solidified weld metal deposit is important in most structural Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) applications. In particular, the geometry of the weld “toe” has a major influence on the magnitude of stress concentration at that location when a mechanical load is imposed on the weldment. One key parameter that can be used to quantify weld toe geometry is toe angle - the angle measured from the substrate surface to the weld metal surface. In applications involving cyclical loads, welds having larger toe angles are generally found to have higher fatigue strength. This presentation describes studies leading to the development of a laser+GMA hybrid welding process that can produce welds having larger toe angles and fatigue strength than those made with GMAW alone. In this hybrid process, GMAW is used to deposit filler metal in the usual manner, but laser energy is focused onto the substrate at the edge of the weld pool (i.e. in the region where the weld toe is being formed). The added heat allows the weld metal to spread further in the lateral direction than would be the case with GMAW alone. Weld metal is deposited with a variable-polarity GMAW process, allowing arc heat input to be varied independently of the deposited volume of filler metal. The power, spot diameter and location of a laser beam focused adjacent to the weld deposit are varied. Conditions that produce spreading of the weld deposit over the laser beam focus spot are determined and fatigue life of the hybrid welds is measured. The experiments are also simulated using a Volume of Fluid code and the results are compared to the experiments. The work clearly shows the benefits of the hybrid process for producing welds with large toe angles and fatigue life.