Modal vs Nebius

By valuation, Nebius is the larger company at $25B versus $1.1B — a 22.7x difference. Size can also be measured by team: Modal employs 30 people while Nebius has 1,000 employees.

Nebius has raised more in total funding at $2B, compared to Modal's $111M — a gap of $1.9B. Combined, the two companies have completed 2 known funding rounds.

Nebius leads with an Awaira Score of 84/100, while Modal sits at 71/100. That 13-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

Modal was founded by Erik Bernhardsson in 2021. Nebius's founder information is not currently available in our database.

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. Nebius: Nebius is a Dutch AI infrastructure company that provides full-stack AI cloud computing services, from GPU clusters to managed machine learning platforms. Originally spun out of Yandex, Nebius has established itself as a major AI infrastructure provider with strategic partnerships including a $2 billion investment from NVIDIA and a $27 billion infrastructure deal with Meta covering dedicated GPU capacity and compute resources over a five-year period. The company operates AI-optimized data centers and offers cloud services that span the entire AI stack — from bare-metal GPU access through high-level managed AI services. Nebius competes in the rapidly growing AI cloud market alongside CoreWeave, Lambda, and the major hyperscalers, differentiating through deep engineering expertise across hardware and software layers.

Modal got there first, launching in 2021 — that's 2 years of extra runway. Nebius didn't arrive until 2023. In AI, that kind of head start means more training data, deeper customer relationships, and a bigger talent moat.

Modal has about 30 employees; Nebius has about 1,000. 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 Modal and Nebius compete in AI Infrastructure, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.