Together AI vs Modal

By valuation, Together AI is the larger company at $3.3B versus $1.1B — a 3x difference. Size can also be measured by team: Together AI employs 100 people while Modal has 30 employees.

Together AI has raised more in total funding at $533.5M, compared to Modal's $111M — a gap of $422.5M. Combined, the two companies have completed 4 known funding rounds.

Together AI leads with an Awaira Score of 77/100, while Modal sits at 71/100. That 6-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

Together AI was founded by Ce Zhang in 2022. Modal was founded by Erik Bernhardsson in 2021. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

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. 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.

Modal got there first, launching in 2021 — that's 1 year of extra runway. Together AI didn't arrive until 2022. In AI, that kind of head start means more training data, deeper customer relationships, and a bigger talent moat.

Together AI has about 100 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 Together AI and Modal compete in AI Infrastructure, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.