Cerebras vs Modal
Side-by-side comparison
Overall Winner: Cerebras (Score: 79)
C
Cerebras
🇺🇸 Andrew Feldman
79
M
Modal
🇺🇸 Erik Bernhardsson
71
| Metric | Cerebras | Modal |
|---|---|---|
| Valuation | $4BWinner | $150M |
| Total Funding | $720MWinner | $20M |
| Founded | 2016 | 2021Winner |
| Stage | Series F | Seed |
| Employees | 400 | 30 |
| Country | USA | USA |
| Category | AI Infrastructure | AI Infrastructure |
| Awaira Score | 79Winner | 71 |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cerebras bigger than Modal?▾
Yes, Cerebras has a higher valuation ($4B) compared to Modal ($150M).
Which company raised more funding — Cerebras or Modal?▾
Cerebras raised $720M while Modal raised $20M.
Which company has a higher Awaira Score?▾
Cerebras has the higher Awaira Score of 79.
What does Cerebras do vs Modal?▾
Cerebras: Cerebras Systems designs and manufactures specialized processors for artificial intelligence and machine learning applications. Founded in 2016, the company develops custom silicon chips optimized for training and inference of large language models and deep learning workloads. Its flagship product, the Cerebras Wafer Scale Engine (WSE), is one of the largest computer chips ever built, integrating hundreds of billions of transistors on a single wafer to deliver high compute density and memory bandwidth for AI workloads. The WSE architecture prioritizes parallel processing capabilities and reduced latency for neural network training, distinguishing it from traditional GPU-based approaches used by competitors like NVIDIA. Cerebras addresses the infrastructure layer of AI computing, targeting organizations training large-scale models. The company has secured $720 million in total funding and maintains a $4.0 billion valuation as of its Series F funding round, indicating strong investor confidence in custom AI chip development. Its competitive positioning centers on delivering superior compute efficiency and performance-per-watt compared to conventional accelerators. The company targets both cloud service providers and enterprises with significant AI computing requirements. Cerebras represents the emerging wave of AI-specific chip designers competing in the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market, though adoption remains limited compared to established GPU manufacturers. Cerebras builds wafer-scale processors specifically engineered for large language model training, offering an alternative architecture to traditional GPU-based AI computing infrastructure.. Modal: Modal is an AI infrastructure company founded in 2021 that provides cloud computing tools for machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. The platform enables developers to build, deploy, and scale AI models with reduced infrastructure complexity. Modal's core offering centers on serverless computing infrastructure specifically optimized for AI workloads, allowing users to run GPU-intensive tasks without managing underlying hardware directly.
The company positions itself within the broader AI infrastructure category, competing alongside platforms like Replicate, Lambda Labs, and cloud providers' AI services. Modal's approach focuses on simplifying the deployment pipeline for machine learning models, enabling developers to move from development to production environments more efficiently. The platform supports various frameworks and use cases including LLM inference, image generation, and general machine learning tasks.
Founded in 2021, Modal operates at the Seed stage with total funding of $20 million and a valuation of $0.1 billion. The company benefits from growing demand for accessible AI infrastructure as organizations scale machine learning workloads. Modal's customer base includes AI developers and teams building applications that require computational resources beyond typical cloud offerings. The competitive landscape remains fragmented, with multiple players addressing different aspects of AI infrastructure. Modal's growth trajectory reflects broader market expansion in AI tooling and infrastructure services. Modal addresses the infrastructure gap between AI research and production deployment by offering serverless computing optimized specifically for GPU-intensive machine learning workloads..
Which company was founded first?▾
Cerebras was founded first in 2016. Modal was founded in 2021.