Fireworks AI vs Together AI

By valuation, Fireworks AI is the larger company at $4B versus $3.3B — a 1.2x difference. Size can also be measured by team: Fireworks AI employs 150 people while Together AI has 100 employees.

Together AI has raised more in total funding at $533.5M, compared to Fireworks AI's $327M — a gap of $206.5M. Combined, the two companies have completed 5 known funding rounds.

Fireworks AI leads with an Awaira Score of 82/100, while Together AI sits at 77/100. That 5-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

Fireworks AI was founded by Lin Qiao in 2022. Together AI was founded by Ce Zhang in 2022. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

Fireworks AI: Fireworks AI, founded in 2022, develops infrastructure software for deploying and running large language models (LLMs) in production environments. The company provides a platform that enables organizations to deploy, fine-tune, and optimize open-source and proprietary models with reduced latency and cost. Fireworks AI's core offering focuses on inference acceleration, allowing enterprises to serve LLMs efficiently at scale through specialized hardware optimization and software acceleration techniques. The platform supports multiple model architectures and enables customization for specific use cases, including content generation, summarization, and code completion. The company has secured $327M in total funding at a $4.0B valuation as of Series C, reflecting significant investor confidence in AI infrastructure. Fireworks AI operates in a competitive segment alongside providers like Together AI, Modal, and cloud-based solutions from major vendors. The company targets enterprises seeking to reduce operational costs associated with LLM deployment while maintaining performance control and data privacy. Its position reflects broader market trends toward distributed AI infrastructure and the need for cost-efficient model serving solutions. The infrastructure layer Fireworks occupies addresses a critical gap between model development and production deployment, supporting the growing adoption of generative AI across industries. Fireworks AI specializes in inference optimization infrastructure, enabling cost-effective production deployment of large language models for enterprise customers. Together AI: Together AI is an AI infrastructure company founded in 2022 that provides cloud-based platforms for training, fine-tuning, and deploying large language models. The company operates a managed inference service and model hosting platform that enables developers and enterprises to run open-source and proprietary models at scale. Together AI's core offering allows customers to access GPU compute resources specifically optimized for LLM workloads without building infrastructure in-house. The company positions itself in the competitive inference and model deployment segment, competing with services like Replicate, Modal, and cloud providers' native ML offerings. Together AI emphasizes open-source model support and cost-efficient inference through optimized serving techniques. The platform supports popular models including Llama, Mistral, and other community-developed architectures. With $228 million in total funding and a $1.3 billion valuation as of its Series B stage, Together AI has secured substantial capital to expand its infrastructure and product capabilities. The company serves use cases spanning application development, research, and enterprise deployment scenarios. Its growth trajectory reflects increased demand for accessible LLM infrastructure alternatives to proprietary API providers, though the market remains highly competitive with low switching costs and commoditizing pricing dynamics. Together AI addresses the infrastructure gap for organizations seeking open-source LLM deployment alternatives to closed commercial APIs.

Both Fireworks AI and Together AI launched in 2022. Same year, but even a few months' head start matters in AI — early movers lock in data, talent, and customer relationships fast.

Fireworks AI has about 150 employees; Together AI has about 100. A bigger team usually means more revenue or heavier VC backing, but in AI, small teams can build at massive scale.

Yes — they're direct rivals. Both Fireworks AI and Together AI compete in AI Infrastructure, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.