Inference-as-a-Service — Timeline
55 milestones, source-traced.
Sep 27, 2024
Funding: Cerebras raised $85 million in Series F-1 at a $2.87 billion post-money valuation.
funding-research →Oct 1, 2024
Ipo Event: Cerebras withdrew its U.S. IPO application in October 2024, opting to remain private due...
Cerebras withdrew its U.S. IPO application in October 2024, opting to remain private due to strong capital availability.
funding-research →Nov 1, 2024
Partnership: Together AI announced a partnership with Hypertec to co-build a cluster of 36,000 Nvidia...
Together AI announced a partnership with Hypertec to co-build a cluster of 36,000 Nvidia GB200 NVL72 GPUs.
funding-research →Nov 1, 2024
Partnership: Together AI partnered with Hypertec to co-build a cluster of 36,000 NVIDIA GB200 NVL72...
Together AI partnered with Hypertec to co-build a cluster of 36,000 NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 GPUs.
funding-research →Dec 1, 2024
Funding: Baseten closed a $150M Series D at a $2.15B valuation led by BOND, with...
Baseten closed a $150M Series D at a $2.15B valuation led by BOND, with participation from Conviction, CapitalG, Premji Invest, 01A, IVP, Spark, Greylock, Scribble Ventures, BoxGroup, and Kevin & Elizabeth Weil.
funding-research →Feb 1, 2025
Product Launch: Together AI launched Together GPU Clusters powered by NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs.
funding-research →Feb 1, 2025
Partnership: Groq secured a $1.5 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to expand AI chip distribution...
Groq secured a $1.5 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to expand AI chip distribution in the country, with projected $500 million in 2025 revenue.
funding-research →Feb 1, 2025
Funding: Baseten raised a $75M Series C at an $825M valuation, led by IVP and...
Baseten raised a $75M Series C at an $825M valuation, led by IVP and Spark Capital.
funding-research →Feb 1, 2025
Customer Win: Saudi Arabia committed $1.5 billion to Groq in February 2025 to expand distribution of...
Saudi Arabia committed $1.5 billion to Groq in February 2025 to expand distribution of its AI chips in the kingdom, with projected $500 million in revenue for 2025 from Saudi contracts.
funding-research →Feb 10, 2025
Partnership: Groq signed a $1.5 billion commitment with Saudi Arabia to expand LPU-based AI inference...
Groq signed a $1.5 billion commitment with Saudi Arabia to expand LPU-based AI inference infrastructure, including a new GroqCloud data center in Dammam.
funding-research →Feb 19, 2025
Funding: Baseten raised a $75 million Series C at an $825 million valuation, led by...
Baseten raised a $75 million Series C at an $825 million valuation, led by IVP and Spark Capital.
funding-research →Feb 20, 2025
Funding: Together AI closed a $305 million Series B round led by General Catalyst and...
Together AI closed a $305 million Series B round led by General Catalyst and co-led by Prosperity7 at a $3.3 billion valuation.
funding-research →Feb 20, 2025
Funding: Together AI closed a $305 million Series B round led by General Catalyst with...
Together AI closed a $305 million Series B round led by General Catalyst with co-lead Prosperity7 at a $3.3 billion valuation.
funding-research →Feb 20, 2025
Funding: Together AI closed a $305 million Series B led by General Catalyst and co-led...
Together AI closed a $305 million Series B led by General Catalyst and co-led by Prosperity7 at a $3.3 billion valuation.
funding-research →Jun 1, 2025
Funding: Baseten raised a $300 million Series E at a $5 billion valuation, led by...
Baseten raised a $300 million Series E at a $5 billion valuation, led by IVP and CapitalG, with NVIDIA contributing approximately $150 million of the total.
funding-research →Sep 1, 2025
Product Launch: Together AI introduced Together Instant Clusters, automating GPU cluster provisioning from a single node.
funding-research →Sep 1, 2025
Product Launch: Together AI launched Together Instant Clusters, enabling automated GPU cluster provisioning from a single...
Together AI launched Together Instant Clusters, enabling automated GPU cluster provisioning from a single node up to hundreds of GPUs.
funding-research →Sep 1, 2025
Product Launch: Together AI launched Together Instant Clusters, offering automated GPU cluster provisioning from 8 GPUs...
Together AI launched Together Instant Clusters, offering automated GPU cluster provisioning from 8 GPUs to hundreds.
funding-research →Sep 1, 2025
Funding: Baseten raised a $150M Series D at a $2.15B valuation, led by BOND with...
Baseten raised a $150M Series D at a $2.15B valuation, led by BOND with Conviction and CapitalG participating.
funding-research →Sep 17, 2025
Funding: Groq raised $750 million at a $6.9 billion post-money valuation, announced September 17, 2025,...
Groq raised $750 million at a $6.9 billion post-money valuation, announced September 17, 2025, led by Disruptive with participation from BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, and DTCP (Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners).
funding-research →Sep 17, 2025
Funding: Groq raised $750 million led by Disruptive at a $6.9 billion post-money valuation, with...
Groq raised $750 million led by Disruptive at a $6.9 billion post-money valuation, with participation from BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, DTCP, Samsung, Cisco, D1, Altimeter, 1789 Capital, and Infinitum.
funding-research →Sep 17, 2025
Funding: Groq closed a $750 million Series E round at a $6.9 billion post-money valuation,...
Groq closed a $750 million Series E round at a $6.9 billion post-money valuation, led by Disruptive with participation from BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, and DTCP.
funding-research →Sep 30, 2025
Funding: Cerebras raised $1.1 billion in Series G led by Fidelity and Atreides Management at...
Cerebras raised $1.1 billion in Series G led by Fidelity and Atreides Management at an $8.1 billion post-money valuation.
funding-research →Sep 30, 2025
Funding: Cerebras Systems raised $1.1 billion in Series G led by Fidelity Management & Research...
Cerebras Systems raised $1.1 billion in Series G led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Atreides Management at a post-money valuation of $8.1 billion.
funding-research →Sep 30, 2025
Funding: Cerebras closed a $1.1 billion Series G round on September 30, 2025, led by...
Cerebras closed a $1.1 billion Series G round on September 30, 2025, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Atreides Management, with participation from Tiger Global, Valor Equity Partners, and 1789 Capital, at an $8.1 billion valuation.
funding-research →Oct 1, 2025
Funding: Fireworks AI raised $250M Series C co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and...
Fireworks AI raised $250M Series C co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and Evantic at a $4B post-money valuation.
funding-research →Oct 1, 2025
Customer Win: Fireworks AI customer base grew to over 10,000 companies by October 2025, up from...
Fireworks AI customer base grew to over 10,000 companies by October 2025, up from ~1,000 at Series B.
funding-research →Oct 1, 2025
Funding: Fireworks AI raised a $250 million Series C round at a $4 billion post-money...
Fireworks AI raised a $250 million Series C round at a $4 billion post-money valuation, co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and Evantic, with participation from Sequoia Capital, NVIDIA, AMD, MongoDB, and Databricks.
funding-research →Oct 1, 2025
Funding: Fireworks AI raised a $250M Series C co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures,...
Fireworks AI raised a $250M Series C co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and Evantic with continued support from Sequoia Capital at a $4B post-money valuation.
funding-research →Dec 1, 2025
Groq builds custom LPU inference silicon; NVIDIA struck a ~$20B non-exclusive LPU license and...
Groq builds custom LPU inference silicon; NVIDIA struck a ~$20B non-exclusive LPU license and hired Groq's founder (Dec 2025).
Knowledge base →Dec 1, 2025
Partnership: Groq signed a $20 billion non-exclusive licensing agreement with NVIDIA covering Groq's AI inference...
Groq signed a $20 billion non-exclusive licensing agreement with NVIDIA covering Groq's AI inference technology, with founder Jonathan Ross and president Sunny Madra joining NVIDIA.
funding-research →Dec 1, 2025
Partnership: Groq entered a reported $20 billion licensing deal with Nvidia in December 2025, granting...
Groq entered a reported $20 billion licensing deal with Nvidia in December 2025, granting Nvidia access to Groq's AI inference chip technology, with senior Groq executives departing to Nvidia as part of the arrangement.
funding-research →Dec 1, 2025
Partnership: Cerebras announced a $10 billion commercial partnership with OpenAI in December 2025 to deliver...
Cerebras announced a $10 billion commercial partnership with OpenAI in December 2025 to deliver 750 megawatts of compute capacity by 2028.
funding-research →Jan 1, 2026
Funding: Baseten raised a $300M Series E at a $5B valuation, led by IVP and...
Baseten raised a $300M Series E at a $5B valuation, led by IVP and CapitalG, with Nvidia investing $150M.
funding-research →Feb 1, 2026
Cerebras, a wafer-scale inference chipmaker, completed its IPO in 2026 (~$66B day-one market cap).
Knowledge base →Feb 1, 2026
Customer Win: Cerebras signed a commercial agreement with OpenAI valued at over $10 billion to deliver...
Cerebras signed a commercial agreement with OpenAI valued at over $10 billion to deliver 750 megawatts of compute capacity by 2028.
funding-research →Feb 3, 2026
Funding: Cerebras raised $1.0 billion in Series H led by Tiger Global at an approximate...
Cerebras raised $1.0 billion in Series H led by Tiger Global at an approximate $23 billion post-money valuation.
funding-research →Feb 3, 2026
Funding: Cerebras closed a $1 billion Series H round on February 3, 2026, led by...
Cerebras closed a $1 billion Series H round on February 3, 2026, led by Tiger Global with participation from Benchmark, Fidelity, Atreides, Alpha Wave, Altimeter, AMD, Coatue, and 1789 Capital, at an approximately $23 billion valuation.
funding-research →Feb 3, 2026
Funding: Cerebras Systems raised $1 billion in Series H led by Tiger Global at a...
Cerebras Systems raised $1 billion in Series H led by Tiger Global at a post-money valuation of approximately $23 billion.
funding-research →Mar 1, 2026
Funding: Baseten raised a $300M Series E at a $5B valuation led by IVP and...
Baseten raised a $300M Series E at a $5B valuation led by IVP and CapitalG, with NVIDIA contributing approximately $150M alongside 01A, Altimeter, Battery Ventures, BOND, BoxGroup, Blackbird Ventures, Conviction, and Greylock.
funding-research →Apr 15, 2026
Funding: Cerebras secured an $850 million five-year syndicated revolving credit facility on April 15, 2026,...
Cerebras secured an $850 million five-year syndicated revolving credit facility on April 15, 2026, led by Morgan Stanley, Citi, Barclays, and UBS.
funding-research →Apr 15, 2026
Funding: Cerebras Systems secured an $850 million revolving credit facility arranged by Morgan Stanley, Citi,...
Cerebras Systems secured an $850 million revolving credit facility arranged by Morgan Stanley, Citi, Barclays, UBS and others.
funding-research →Apr 15, 2026
Funding: Cerebras secured $850 million in debt financing via a credit facility with Morgan Stanley,...
Cerebras secured $850 million in debt financing via a credit facility with Morgan Stanley, Citi, Barclays, and UBS.
funding-research →May 1, 2026
Baseten, an inference-serving platform, reached a ~$13B valuation after a ~$1.5B raise.
Knowledge base →May 1, 2026
Nebius's Token Factory offers managed inference; Nebius's Q1 2026 revenue grew ~684% year-over-year.
Knowledge base →May 1, 2026
Fireworks AI, a fast open-model inference platform, was reportedly raising at around a ~$15B...
Fireworks AI, a fast open-model inference platform, was reportedly raising at around a ~$15B valuation.
Knowledge base →May 1, 2026
Together AI reached roughly ~$1B in annual recurring revenue serving open models via API.
Knowledge base →Jun 1, 2026
Inference now accounts for ~2/3 of AI accelerator demand in 2026, up from ~1/2...
Inference now accounts for ~2/3 of AI accelerator demand in 2026, up from ~1/2 in 2025 and ~1/3 in 2023 (Deloitte).
Knowledge base →Jun 1, 2026
Open-weight models (GLM, Qwen, DeepSeek, Llama) at roughly 1/6 the cost of frontier models...
Open-weight models (GLM, Qwen, DeepSeek, Llama) at roughly 1/6 the cost of frontier models drive inference-service economics.
Knowledge base →Jun 1, 2026
Inference-as-a-service decouples model serving from raw GPU rental — buyers pay per token, not...
Inference-as-a-service decouples model serving from raw GPU rental — buyers pay per token, not per GPU-hour.
Knowledge base →Jun 1, 2026
The inference-service cohort — Baseten, Fireworks, Together, Nebius — is among the best-funded categories...
The inference-service cohort — Baseten, Fireworks, Together, Nebius — is among the best-funded categories in AI infrastructure.
Knowledge base →Jun 1, 2026
Funding: Baseten closed a $1.5B Series F (split-priced) at a $13B post-money valuation, co-led by...
Baseten closed a $1.5B Series F (split-priced) at a $13B post-money valuation, co-led by Spark Capital, Sands Capital, Altimeter Capital, and Wellington Management.
funding-research →Jun 1, 2026
Partnership: OpenAI negotiated a deal granting it a $6 billion stake in Cerebras post-IPO ahead...
OpenAI negotiated a deal granting it a $6 billion stake in Cerebras post-IPO ahead of Cerebras' planned 2026 IPO.
funding-research →Jun 1, 2026
Customer Win: Cerebras announced a $10 billion compute deal with OpenAI to deliver 750 megawatts of...
Cerebras announced a $10 billion compute deal with OpenAI to deliver 750 megawatts of AI compute capacity by 2028.
funding-research →Jun 22, 2026
Funding: Groq announced a $650 million growth capital pro-rata round led by Disruptive and Infinitum...
Groq announced a $650 million growth capital pro-rata round led by Disruptive and Infinitum to fund its pivot to an AI inference cloud business and scale toward 200 MW by 2027.
funding-research →
Milestones merged from 0 curated events, 10 verified facts (with observed dates), and 45 business signals from the last 24 months. Deduped by date + label; curated entries take precedence.
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