Nvidia-Allied Startup Eyes $1B Raise
GPU cloud startup Together AI is reportedly in talks for a $1 billion funding round at a $7.5 billion valuation. The potential deal would more than double its valuation from last year, fueled by what sources say is $1 billion in annual revenue from renting out its AI-focused GPUs. The raise highlights the intense demand and sky-high valuations for companies providing core AI infrastructure.
Together AI was founded in 2022 by a team with deep roots in AI research and successful startups; CEO Vipul Ved Prakash previously co-founded social search company Topsy, which was acquired by Apple. The founding team also includes Stanford professors and AI luminaries Chris Ré and Percy Liang. The company's valuation has grown dramatically since its inception. In February 2025, it raised a $305 million Series B round at a $3.3 billion valuation, with investors including Salesforce Ventures, Coatue, and Nvidia itself. This followed a Series A extension in March 2024 that valued the company at $1.25 billion. The firm's business model centers on its "AI Acceleration Cloud," which provides the raw computing power needed for heavy-duty AI work. Revenue is generated through two main streams: per-token API usage for over 100 open-source models and, more significantly, the direct rental of Nvidia GPU capacity for training and fine-tuning AI. The alliance with Nvidia is a core strategic pillar. As an official NVIDIA Cloud Partner, Together AI uses the chipmaker's latest reference architecture and is rapidly deploying its next-generation Blackwell platform GPUs. One partnership with Hypertec Cloud aims to deploy a cluster of more than 36,000 NVIDIA GB200 GPUs. Together AI operates in the fiercely competitive GPU-as-a-Service market, which was valued at over $5.5 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 30%. While major cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud dominate, Together AI competes with other specialized players like CoreWeave and Lambda Labs by focusing on the open-source community.
