Lambda Labs Inc. is believed to be holding talks about a new funding round that could value it between $4 billion and $5 billion.
Bloomberg reported the discussions on Thursday. It’s unclear who might participate in the round or when it’s expected to close. However, the paper’s sources did specify that Lambda is seeking to raise several hundred million dollars.
Lambda operates a cloud platform optimized to run artificial intelligence workloads. According to the company, it provides access to more than 1 million graphics processing units hosted in liquid-cooled data centers. A software toolkit called Lambda Stack enables users to quickly set up open-source AI development frameworks in their cloud environments.
The report about Lambda’s fundraising push comes days after it upgraded its platform with servers powered by Blackwell B200 chips. Introduced last March, the B200 is the most capable Nvidia Corp. graphics card currently in mass production. It includes 208 billion transistors made with a four-nanometer manufacturing process.
Lambda uses an Nvidia technology called SHARP to speed up the graphics cards that it leases to customers. Usually, the task of coordinating the GPUs in a cluster is performed by the GPUs themselves with help from central processing units. SHARP offloads certain aspects of the task to the network equipment that links together those chips, which leaves more processing capacity for AI workloads.
Lambda also promises to speed up customers’ cloud environments in other ways. In May, it debuted a feature called Cloud Metrics Dashboard that finds underutilized GPUs. Customers can use the data provided by the tool to fix inefficiencies in their AI training clusters.
Lambda offers several on-premises hardware products alongside its cloud platform. There’s a server called Hyperplane that can hold up to 8 B200 chips. Additionally, the company sells GPU-equipped workstations that developers can use to prototype new AI models.
Bloomberg’s sources said that the funding round Lambda is seeking to raise could be its last before going public. The company is expected to list its shares as early as this year. According to the paper, Lambda has already held preliminary discussions with potential underwriters.
CoreWeave Inc., the operator of a competing cloud platform for AI workloads, went public in March. The company set a four-year record for tech listings by raising $1.5 billion from investors. CoreWeave’s stock has declined significantly in recent days, but the company is still trading well above its $39 opening price.
Lambda was worth $2.5 billion following its most recent funding round in February. The fact that the new raise the company is seeking could reportedly double its valuation hints it may be experiencing the same kind of rapid revenue increase CoreWeave reported this month. The cloud provider’s sales jumped 206% year-over-year, to $1.21 billion, in the second quarter.
Image: Lambda
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