Enterprise DNA
AI Industry Map / Running models (inference)
Layer 6 of 9, counting up from the power station

Running models (inference)

Every time anyone uses AI, a model runs somewhere. Hosting, routing, testing and privately running models is a fast-growing layer of its own.

Areas
4
Companies
39
Money flows
35

Inference providers

Companies that run models on GPUs or custom chips and sell the output by the token.

Full area: openings, flows, sceptic
Nvidia
NVDA Supplier

Makes the GPUs that most AI inference runs on, and paid about $20B in late 2025 to license Groq's inference chip technology.

$89.0B data centre revenue in the quarter to July 2026 (fiscal Q2 2027), out of $96.2B total

Open profile
Groq
Supplier

Designs its own inference chips and runs a cloud that serves open models quickly.

$3.5B in a 2026 round that followed its Nvidia licensing deal

Open profile
Cerebras
CBRS Supplier

Makes very large AI chips and now sells hosted model access as well as the hardware itself.

$510M in 2025, with $87.9M net income

Open profile
Lambda
Supplier

Rents Nvidia GPU cloud capacity to AI labs and companies, and sells GPU servers.

About $760M annualised in 2025 (Sacra estimate)

Open profile
Fireworks AI
Supplier

fast open-model hosting

Company says more than $1B annual recurring revenue (Jul 2026). Sacra estimates about $800M annualised by May 2026

Open profile
Together AI
Supplier

open-model hosting

About $1B annualised (Sacra estimate, Feb 2026)

Open profile
Hugging Face
Supplier

Hosts the main library of open AI models and datasets, and sells inference, storage and subscriptions to companies.

Annualised revenue above $150M, from one unofficial report. The company does not disclose revenue

Open profile
Modal
Supplier

pay-as-you-go GPUs

About $300M annualised (CEO, 2026, reported)

Open profile
Replicate
Supplier

Lets developers run AI models through an API. Now part of Cloudflare, feeding its Workers AI platform.

Bought by Cloudflare for $57.4M cash consideration, completed 1 Dec 2025

Open profile
Baseten
Supplier

runs production models for companies

About $600M annualised run-rate, reported in mid 2026 (not audited)

Open profile
DeepInfra
Supplier

Hosts open AI models through an API at low prices and is building its own data centre capacity.

Company says annual recurring revenue above $100M (2026). Not audited

Open profile
fal.ai
Supplier

Serves image, video and audio models through an API for app builders.

Reported to have doubled from $200M to $400M annualised in about five months (one outlet, 2026)

Open profile
SambaNova
Supplier

Makes its own AI chips and sells inference cloud access and on-premise systems to large organisations.

About $11B after a round of about $1B (July 2026)

Open profile

Model routing

One connection that sends each request to the best or cheapest of many models, with billing and backup built in.

Full area: openings, flows, sceptic

Private and local AI

Running models on your own machines or in your own cloud account for privacy, cost or control.

Full area: openings, flows, sceptic
Nvidia
NVDA Supplier

Sells NIM microservices and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, which run AI models inside a company's own data centre.

$89.0B data centre revenue in the quarter to July 2026 (fiscal Q2 2027), out of $96.2B total

Open profile
Google
GOOGL

Hosts private model deployments inside a customer's Google Cloud account, and runs its own Gemini models.

25% of AI chip supply (Epoch AI)

Open profile
Microsoft
MSFT

Hosts private model deployments inside a customer's Azure account, and sells its own Copilot and model services.

20M+ users (2025)

Open profile
Amazon
AMZN Supplier

Hosts private and dedicated copies of AI models inside a customer's own AWS account, through Bedrock and related services.

5% of AI chip supply (Epoch AI)

Open profile
Mistral AI

sells on-premise deployments

About $14B valuation (Sep 2025)

Open profile
Dell Technologies
DELL Supplier

Sells AI servers and the Dell AI Factory package, built with Nvidia chips, for companies that run AI in their own sites.

Full-year fiscal 2027 guidance raised to $192B (Sep 2026)

Open profile
Cohere
Supplier

Canadian company that builds enterprise AI models and mostly sells them for private or on-premise use.

About $240M annualised recurring revenue at end 2025 (reported)

Open profile
LM Studio

Desktop app that runs open AI models on your own computer. Free for work and personal use since July 2025.

About $1.8M annual revenue in 2025 (reported)

Open profile
Ollama
Supplier

the popular tool for running models on a laptop or server

Not disclosed. Company declined to discuss revenue at its Series B

Open profile
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
HPE Supplier

Sells Private Cloud AI, a bundled on-premise AI system with Nvidia chips, for companies that keep data in-house.

Open profile
Red Hat
Supplier

Sells OpenShift AI, a platform for running and managing AI models on a company's own servers or cloud. Owned by IBM.

Open profile

Testing and monitoring AI

Tools that check model and agent output quality, trace what happened, and catch failures.

Full area: openings, flows, sceptic

The map updates three times a week.

241 companies across 25 areas, 62 money flows and 89 openings so far. New research lands every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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