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Inference is a driving force in AI investing as companies move beyond training models into generating useful outputs.

Why it matters: Chipmaker Cerebras' $5.6 billion IPO is fanning further excitement around the tech.

How it works: Inference is critical for agentic AI, allowing agents to plan and reason rather than just summarize.

Driving the news: U.K. chip startup Fractile raised a $220 million Series B this week led by Factorial Funds, Accel and Founders Fund.

But it goes beyond chipmakers. There are reports this week that Modal Labs, which provides the infrastructure and software to run generative AI inference and LLM fine-tuning, is in talks to raise money at a valuation of about $4.5 billion.

The New York-based startup only recently became a unicorn.

Catch up quick: The pair join Baseten, which raised $300 million in February at a $5 billion valuation, and Together AI, which is said to be in talks to raise $1 billion at a $7.5 billion valuation.

DeepInfra, which allows developers to run inference on open-source models quickly, also announced a $107 million Series B earlier this month.

What we're watching: Dealmaking could heat up more as the market grows.

Baseten and Together AI were both acquisitive last year.

In March, Fireworks AI acquired Hathora, a real-time compute and orchestration startup focused on multiplayer games and AI inference.

Inference is the new AI gold rush

Companies are moving beyond training models into generating useful outputs.

Illustration of a robot hand placing a coin inside a piggy bank with rectangles of dollar bills creating a geometric patten behind it

Inference is a driving force in AI investing as companies move beyond training models into generating useful outputs.Why it matters: Chipmaker Cerebras&#x27; $5.6 billion <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="IPO" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/all-deals/2026/05/14/cerebras-playbook-benchmark-ipo" data-vars-content-id="4cc3d979-31d2-4bb1-b8b4-f93b3c4c68b4" data-vars-headline="Inference is the new AI gold rush" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/all-deals/2026/05/14/cerebras-playbook-benchmark-ipo" target="_self">IPO</a> is fanning further excitement around the tech.

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Inference is the new AI gold rush

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