Cloud infrastructure company Vultr has raised $333 million in funding as part of an investment round that values the firm at $3.5 billion.
Founded in 2014 by David Aninowsky and self-funded until now, Vultr operates a global, full-stack AI infrastructure and cloud computing platform with 32 cloud data center regions around the world.
Led by LuminArx Capital Management and AMD Ventures, the investment will enable the firm to accelerate its global expansion and capitalize on the surge in enterprise AI compute demands.
"Building upon the foundation created by David Aninowsky, Vultr has become the leading cloud infrastructure alternative to traditional hyperscalers,” said JJ Kardwell, CEO of Vultr.
"As we continue our global expansion, LuminArx’s collaborative, innovative approach and AMD’s strategic impact enable Vultr to further accelerate growth in AI infrastructure and cloud computing, creating the category-defining independent cloud infrastructure company."
Vultr is one of a number of startups aiming to capitalize on the generative AI boom by offering alternative GPU and infrastructure options to industry giants such as Nvidia.
Earlier this year, another GPU infrastructure provider CoreWeave raised $1.1 billion in funding and secured multi-billion dollar deals with Microsoft and Cisco.
Analysis from 451 Research - and commissioned by Vultr - showed that enterprises will push beyond AI training to the edge in 2025, presenting an opportunity for startups in this domain to capitalize on the trend.
This latest investment will enable the firm to expand its global cloud GPU fleet to support this widespread industry shift.
"Vultr’s deep experience delivering secure, compliant, and scalable cloud infrastructure and their deployment of AMD Instinct accelerators positions them as an innovative cloud solutions provider," said Mathew Hein, senior vice president and chief strategy officer of corporate development at AMD.
"We share Vultr’s mission to empower enterprises and AI innovators with unparalleled access to high-performance compute for AI model development and deployment and are proud to support their growth."
The investment round marks the latest seal of approval by major industry players.
Earlier this month, Vultr signed a four-way deal with Juniper Networks, Broadcom, and AMD to launch a new network architecture.
The announcement included the expansion of its Chicago cloud data center region at Centersquare’s Lisle, Illinois location. This features an AMD GPU supercompute cluster, powered by several thousand of AMD’s MI300X machine learning accelerators.
The company also extended its collaboration with AMD to make the new Instinct MI300X accelerators and ROCm open software available within Vultr’s composable cloud infrastructure.
It now has hundreds of thousands of active customers across 185 countries for its global cloud compute, cloud GPU, bare metal, and cloud storage solutions, the company said.
"We are excited to partner with Vultr to accelerate the growth of a standout leader in the cloud infrastructure industry," said Tanisha Keshava Bellur, Partner at LuminArx.
"Among the many management teams and companies we’ve evaluated in the AI infrastructure space, Vultr distinguishes itself through exceptional leadership, outstanding execution, and a proven track record of delivering high-performance cloud infrastructure for over a decade."
