According to Reuters, Modular raised USD 250 million in its latest funding round, increasing its valuation to USD 1.6 billion. The funding round was led by U.S. Innovative Technology fund, and existing investors including DFJ Growth, GV, General Catalyst, and Greylock also participated.

Modular’s platform aims to provide a vendor-agnostic “software layer” that allows AI applications to run across different hardware architectures—GPUs, custom AI chips, or other accelerators—without needing to rewrite code for each target. This approach is often framed as “neutral” or “Switzerland-style” in its ambition to reduce vendor lock-in.

The startup already serves clients including major cloud providers and chipmakers, positioning itself as a potential enabler of more competition in the AI compute stack. Modular plans to deploy the new capital to expand its engineering and sales teams, and to move from inference tools into training support.

Key Highlights

• Raised $250 million, valuing Modular at $1.6 billion

• Led by U.S. Innovative Technology fund, with DFJ Growth, GV, General Catalyst, Greylock

• Platform enables AI workloads to run across different hardware without code rewrites

• Supports cloud providers and chip vendors, positioning as a neutral layer

• Using funding to expand engineering, go-to-market, and move into training domain

Why This Matters

1. Breaking vendor lock-in: If successful, Modular’s approach could reduce the dominance of any single hardware ecosystem (notably Nvidia’s).

2. Competition at hardware & software layers: It may spark more competition in both hardware design and software tooling.

3. Ease for AI developers: Developers might gain more flexibility to switch or combine hardware without redoing models.

4. Strategic positioning: Being neutral to hardware vendors gives Modular potential leverage in the evolving compute stack.

Source
Reuters – Full Article