AI cloud firm Together AI is set to raise more than $100 million in a new funding round, bringing the not-yet-two-year-old company’s valuation to over $1 billion.
According to a report in The Information, the round will be led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from hedge fund Coatue Management.
Founded in 2022, Together AI is an open-source cloud-based platform that can be used by developers to build open and customizable AI models. The company also resells access to Nvidia server chips, bundling GPU services with software to provide customers with a more cost-efficient way of training and tweaking their open-source models.
However, while demand for chips that can support AI workloads has never been greater, chip designers such as Nvidia have struggled to keep pace. As a result, Nvidia has been rationing the availability of its H100 GPUs, with the company saying it expected the shortages to persist for around 18 months.
Since its launch, Together AI has raised a total of $122.5 million across two previous funding rounds. The company is backed by 29 investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, Nvidia, and SV Angel.
It had not been disclosed when the latest fundraising effort will close, and sources cited in the report said the terms of the deal could still change.
In June 2023, Salesforce Ventures doubled its generative AI investment fund from $250 million to $500 million. The fund originally launched last March and to date has invested in Anthropic, Cohere, Hearth.AI, Humane, Tribble, and You.com.
