Fireworks hits $17.5 billion valuation and $1B in annualized revenue
Cloud startup Fireworks has reached a $17.5 billion valuation and $1 billion in annualized revenue as companies seek open-source AI alternatives. The growth highlights a shift in the cloud market as businesses look beyond major tech giants for AI infrastructure.
Why it matters
The success of Fireworks indicates a diversifying AI infrastructure market and suggests that enterprise demand for flexible, open-source AI hosting is rapidly expanding.
The cost of the latest artificial intelligence models is increasingly breeding anxiety among finance executives, who have started directing employees to consider open-source alternatives.
That's boosting cloud startup Fireworks , which competes with Amazon and Google to host models that developers can weave into applications. The Nvidia -backed company said Thursday that it has exceeded $1 billion in annualized revenue, five times what it had last year, and it has now raised a $1.5 billion round at a $17.5 billion valuation.
"We're seeing super-linear demand," Lin Qiao, Fireworks' co-founder and CEO, told CNBC in an interview at the company's headquarters in San Mateo, California. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have this kind of market."
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