The rise of open-source models like DeepSeek has shifted the AI landscape, increasing demand for AI computing infrastructure despite the models' efficiency. Together AI's expansion reflects this trend, as it competes with major cloud providers like Microsoft's Azure. The company emphasizes performance and cost efficiency while addressing enterprise requirements for privacy and security. The funding round saw participation from major AI ecosystem players, including Salesforce Ventures and Nvidia, with Saudi Arabia's Prosperity7 Ventures co-leading the round.
Key takeaways:
- Together AI has raised $305 million in Series B funding, more than doubling its valuation to $3.3 billion.
- The company has secured 200 megawatts of power capacity and plans to deploy clusters of Nvidia's latest Blackwell GPUs across North America.
- Together AI's platform can process DeepSeek-R1 queries at 85 tokens per second, significantly outperforming Azure's seven tokens per second.
- The funding round attracted major players in the AI ecosystem, including Salesforce Ventures, Nvidia, and Kleiner Perkins, with Saudi Arabia's Prosperity7 Ventures co-leading the round.