Why AI Compute Comes in Rectangles — Erik Bernhardsson, Modal CEO
Modal hits $1B ARR and raises $750M Series D at $16B valuation
Modal CEO Erik Bernhardsson explains how the company reached $1B annualized run rate and closed a $750M Series D at a $16B valuation by pooling GPU demand across thousands of customers to offer elastic, serverless compute. A near-cancelled sandbox product now represents roughly a third of revenue after coding and RL agents created unexpected demand. The interview highlights a structural shift in AI infrastructure economics: fixed-capacity contracts don't match real workload shapes, and providers who pool demand can monetize idle capacity others leave on the table.