FundraiseOct 22, 2026, 13:15 UTC

Fireworks AI eyes up to $40B valuation, double its July price

What's the deal? AI infrastructure startup Fireworks AI is in early talks to raise fresh funding at a valuation of $30 billion to $40 billion, Business Insider reported. That would be up to roughly double its $17.5 billion Series D in July — and as much as 10 times its $4 billion Series C mark from October 2025.

The caveat: The talks are preliminary, the target could change, and no round size has been disclosed. Fireworks declined to comment.

What's the endgame? Founded in 2022 by former Meta and Google engineers, Fireworks lets companies run, fine-tune, and deploy open and custom AI models on leased GPU capacity. CEO Lin Qiao previously led the PyTorch team at Meta.

The numbers: At its July raise, Fireworks said annualised revenue had passed $1 billion, up fivefold from its prior round. Daily token volume grew from 15 trillion to more than 40 trillion, with about 95% coming from models customised on customers' own data.

That $1.505 billion Series D was led by Atreides Management, Index Ventures, and TCV, with Nvidia, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Menlo Ventures among 17 participants.

Why now? Rivals are repricing at the same pace. Baseten raised a $1.5 billion Series F at $13 billion in June and was reportedly in talks near $26 billion by September. Modal Labs raised a $750 million Series D at $15.75 billion in October, while Together AI reached $8.3 billion in July.

The signal: Investor appetite for AI infrastructure is intense, but the multiples stand out. At $40 billion, Fireworks would be valued at roughly 40 times the $1 billion run rate it disclosed in July — against about 17.5 times at the Series D. Without a newer revenue figure, the apparent jump is not yet evidence of a completed deal.

Image credit: Fireworks AI