Nvidia-backed AI startup Vast Data raises $1B at $30B valuation as AI infrastructure boom accelerates

The companies racing to build AI are running into a hard limit: data. Training and running models at scale isn’t just about chips anymore. It’s about how fast you can move, store, and feed massive datasets across millions of GPUs. That pressure is reshaping the infrastructure stack—and investors are paying attention.

NVIDIA-backed Vast Data is the latest to ride that wave. The AI infrastructure startup said Wednesday it raised $1 billion in a new funding round that values the company at $30 billion, more than triple its $9.1 billion valuation from 2023.

The news comes just five months after Vast Data secured a $1.17 billion deal with CoreWeave to help power the next wave of AI infrastructure.

Founded in 2016, Vast builds software that helps companies manage and access huge volumes of data for AI workloads. The platform is designed to keep GPUs fed with the data they need, reducing bottlenecks that can slow down training and inference. The company says its systems support projects running on millions of GPUs, a claim that points to how central data infrastructure has become in the AI stack.

Its customer list reflects that shift. Clients include CoreWeave, Mistral, the U.S. Air Force, and Cursor—a mix of cloud providers, model builders, and government users all pushing the limits of large-scale computing.

The round was led by Drive Capital and Access Industries, with participation from Fidelity Management and Research Company, NEA, and Nvidia. The financing includes both primary and secondary capital.

We are already supporting AI environments spanning millions of GPUs globally, operating across every layer of the AI stack,” said Renen Hallak, Founder and CEO of VAST Data. “What is becoming clear is that these layers are no longer independent. Applications, models, and infrastructure now operate as a single system through data. VAST sits at the center of how that system works, which is why we are seeing this level of demand at global scale.”

AI Gold Rush Continues: Vast Data Secures $1 Billion Funding, Triples Valuation to $30B on Surging AI Demand

Vast’s growth metrics help explain the surge in valuation. The company said it has surpassed $4 billion in cumulative bookings and exited its last fiscal year with more than $500 million in committed annual recurring revenue. That level of traction is rare for infrastructure players, which often take years to reach meaningful scale.

The deal lands at a time when funding across AI continues to climb. Investors have poured more than $280 billion into AI companies this year, according to Dealroom, with a large share going to model developers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. Vast sits a layer below that, building the systems those models rely on.

“The scale and speed of AI adoption are creating a new class of infrastructure company,” Chris Olsen, cofounder and partner at Drive Capital, said in a statement.

“VAST is emerging as the clear leader in this category, with the architecture and momentum to support the world’s most demanding AI environments.”

NVIDIA’s presence in the round fits a broader pattern. The chip giant has been stepping deeper into the startup ecosystem, backing companies that strengthen its position at the center of AI infrastructure. This year alone, Nvidia has participated in major funding rounds for OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI, as well as for companies like Nscale and Wayve, CNBC reported.

The message is clear: the race to build AI is no longer just about better models. It’s about who controls the infrastructure that runs those models. Vast Data is betting that layer will define the next wave of winners.