AI inference startup Fal doubles its valuation to $16B

Fal, a San Francisco startup that hosts and runs AI video, image and audio models, has doubled its valuation to $16 billion from $8 billion in April, Bloomberg reported, according to TechCrunch. It raised $1.3 billion in its latest round, led by Bessemer Venture Partners with Nvidia, Sound Ventures and T. Rowe Price taking part; across its Series E and F it raised a combined $1.65 billion. Demand for inference, running AI models that are already trained, is soaring, particularly among customers using open-source models, and Fal passed $800 million in annualized revenue earlier this year. Rivals such as Baseten, Fireworks AI and Modal are riding the same wave. In the AI gold rush, the shovel sellers are getting rich fast.