Modal hits $1B ARR growing 15x, new round values it at $15.75B
graceisford · x · 2026-11-03
Modal CEO Erik Bernhardsson (who built Spotify's original music recommendation system) joined 20VC to discuss the inference market boom. Key facts: Modal has raised over $1.2B including a $750M Series D led by Accel at a $15.75B valuation, and surpassed $1B ARR growing more than 15x year-on-year. Topics covered: who wins the inference market, why 90% of software gross margins are dead in AI, why GPU shortage is mostly a pricing problem (he calls it an "open-air drug market" for GPUs), data center overbuild risk, custom silicon vs NVIDIA, whether CUDA is the real moat, whether open-source LLM inference has peaked, Europe's frontier model chances, and the bull case for a $100B verticalized model company.
Related event: Modal Tops $1B ARR as CEO Talks Boundless Inference Demand(2 posts)→
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