Tenstorrent vs Modal

By valuation, Tenstorrent is the larger company at $3.2B versus $1.1B — a 2.9x difference. Size can also be measured by team: Tenstorrent employs 400 people while Modal has 30 employees.

Tenstorrent has raised more in total funding at $1.2B, compared to Modal's $111M — a gap of $1.1B. Combined, the two companies have completed 6 known funding rounds.

Tenstorrent leads with an Awaira Score of 80/100, while Modal sits at 71/100. That 9-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

Tenstorrent was founded by Ljubisa Bajic in 2016. Modal was founded by Erik Bernhardsson in 2021. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

Tenstorrent: Tenstorrent is a Canadian AI infrastructure company founded in 2016 that designs and manufactures specialized processors and software platforms for artificial intelligence workloads. The company develops custom silicon chips and compute architectures optimized for training and inference of large language models and other machine learning applications. Its core offering includes the Grayskull and Wormhole processor families, which use a distributed computing approach to achieve high performance efficiency. The company's software stack enables developers to deploy AI models across its hardware without extensive optimization. Tenstorrent has positioned itself as an alternative to dominant GPU manufacturers in the AI accelerator market, targeting data centers and cloud providers seeking alternatives for AI infrastructure. The company has secured $1.18 billion in total funding across multiple rounds, achieving a $3.2 billion valuation while remaining in Series D funding stage. Founded by industry veterans, Tenstorrent operates as a fabless semiconductor company, partnering with foundries for chip manufacturing. The firm competes against established players like NVIDIA, AMD, and other emerging AI chip startups. Its growth trajectory reflects increasing demand for specialized AI computing resources, though adoption remains limited compared to incumbent GPU providers. The company continues expanding its processor roadmap and software ecosystem to capture market share in the rapidly growing AI infrastructure sector. Tenstorrent develops custom AI processors designed as a performance-efficient alternative to GPUs, using distributed computing architecture for large language model workloads. 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.

Tenstorrent got there first, launching in 2016 — that's 5 years of extra runway. Modal didn't arrive until 2021. In AI, that kind of head start means more training data, deeper customer relationships, and a bigger talent moat.

Tenstorrent has about 400 employees; Modal has about 30. 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 Tenstorrent and Modal compete in AI Infrastructure, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.