Together AI just closed a massive $800 million funding round that catapults the open source AI infrastructure provider to an $8.3 billion valuation - more than doubling its worth from early 2025. The neocloud startup, which specializes in hosting and serving open source AI models, is emerging as a serious alternative to the proprietary infrastructure dominated by hyperscalers, signaling that investors are betting big on the future of accessible, customizable AI infrastructure.
Together AI just became one of the most valuable AI infrastructure companies you've probably never heard of. The startup's $800 million funding round, reported by TechCrunch, pushes its valuation to $8.3 billion - a stunning 151% jump from the $3.3 billion it commanded just 18 months earlier.
The numbers tell a story about where the AI industry is heading. While OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google battle over proprietary models and closed ecosystems, Together AI is carving out a different path entirely. The company operates what's known as a "neocloud" - infrastructure purpose-built for AI workloads - with a twist. Instead of locking customers into proprietary models, Together AI specializes in hosting and optimizing open source alternatives.
This approach is resonating with enterprises in a big way. Companies are increasingly wary of vendor lock-in, especially when it comes to their AI strategy. Together AI's platform lets businesses deploy models from Meta's Llama family, Mistral, and other open source projects without having to build and maintain the underlying infrastructure themselves. It's the best of both worlds - the flexibility of open source with the reliability of managed cloud services.
The funding environment for AI infrastructure has been white-hot, but Together AI's valuation jump stands out even in this frothy market. For context, the company more than doubled its valuation in roughly 18 months, a period when many late-stage startups have struggled to maintain their previous marks. The rapid appreciation suggests investors see Together AI capturing meaningful market share from the hyperscaler trio of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
The timing couldn't be better. Enterprise adoption of AI is accelerating, but many companies are pushing back against the black-box nature of proprietary models. Open source AI offers transparency, customization, and cost control - all critical factors for regulated industries and cost-conscious enterprises. Together AI essentially provides the infrastructure layer that makes open source AI practical for organizations that don't have Meta's or Google's engineering resources.
The neocloud concept itself represents a shift in how AI infrastructure gets built and consumed. Traditional cloud providers retrofitted their existing infrastructure for AI workloads. Neoclouds like Together AI are designed from the ground up for the unique demands of training and inference - optimized chip configurations, specialized networking, and software stacks tuned for transformer models and other AI architectures.
While Together AI hasn't disclosed the investors in this round, the $800 million raise positions the company to scale aggressively. Building AI infrastructure is capital-intensive, requiring massive investments in GPUs, data center capacity, and engineering talent. The funding gives Together AI runway to expand its infrastructure footprint and compete more directly with the hyperscalers' AI offerings.
The company's growth trajectory mirrors broader trends in the AI landscape. As models become commoditized - especially open source ones - the value is shifting to the infrastructure and tooling layers. Together AI is betting that developers and enterprises will increasingly choose flexibility over the convenience of all-in-one platforms from the big cloud providers.
What's particularly notable is how quickly the company has scaled. Going from a $3.3 billion valuation to $8.3 billion in less than two years suggests Together AI isn't just winning investor confidence - it's likely showing strong revenue growth and customer traction. In the current market, valuation multiples have compressed for most startups, making Together AI's appreciation all the more impressive.
The open source AI movement has been gaining momentum, with Meta leading the charge by releasing its Llama models freely. But open source models alone aren't enough - companies need reliable infrastructure to run them at scale. That's the gap Together AI is filling, and investors are clearly betting that gap represents a massive market opportunity.
Together AI's $800 million raise and $8.3 billion valuation mark a turning point for open source AI infrastructure. As enterprises increasingly demand alternatives to proprietary AI platforms, the neocloud provider is positioned to capture a significant slice of the massive AI infrastructure market. The real test will be whether Together AI can translate this investor confidence into sustained revenue growth and market share gains against the hyperscaler incumbents. For now, the company has the capital and momentum to make a serious run at reshaping how businesses build and deploy AI.
