In a significant move, the open source project vLLM has transitioned into a startup named Inferact, securing $150 million in seed funding and achieving a valuation of $800 million. This funding round was co-led by prominent venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners, following reports from TechCrunch about the investment.
Inferact’s formation aligns with broader trends in artificial intelligence, particularly the shift from model training to application deployment, known as inference. As a result, tools like vLLM are gaining traction among investors for their ability to enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of AI technologies. The project, along with SGLang, which recently became RadixArk and raised capital at a $400 million valuation, was incubated in 2023 at the UC Berkeley lab of Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica.
Simon Mo, CEO of Inferact and one of the original creators of vLLM, noted that among its existing users are significant players, including Amazon’s cloud services and its shopping app.