Modal, a leading Indian cloud-computing startup serving AI developers, is adopting Nvidia’s new Vera central processors to significantly improve the efficiency of its AI agents. This move marks Modal’s first use of Nvidia chips, previously relying exclusively on Intel and AMD hardware.
- Modal will deploy Nvidia Vera chips alongside Intel and AMD processors
- Nvidia’s Vera chip reportedly doubles AI agent workload capacity
- Modal’s revenue has grown over 15x year-over-year, on track for $1B sales
What happened
Modal, a cloud-computing startup based in India that rents computing power to AI developers, announced plans to incorporate Nvidia's latest Vera central processors into its infrastructure for the first time. Until now, Modal's AI agent workloads exclusively ran on Intel and AMD chips.
The decision follows promising early tests revealing that the Nvidia Vera chips can double the amount of work AI agents can perform. This has encouraged Modal to deploy the Nvidia processors in conjunction with existing Intel and AMD hardware, requiring meaningful software adjustments on Modal’s platform.
Why it matters
Modal is one of the fastest-growing AI cloud-service providers, recently completing a $750 million funding round valuing it at $15.75 billion. The startup projects it will achieve $1 billion in revenue within the next year, having already grown usage threefold and revenue more than 15 times year-over-year.
Integrating Nvidia’s Vera chips positions Modal to enhance its AI agent capabilities significantly, improving efficiency and scalability. This move also demonstrates Nvidia’s growing traction in a market historically dominated by Intel and AMD central processors, with Nvidia targeting a $20 billion revenue opportunity for Vera chip sales.
What to watch next
Modal’s CEO Erik Bernhardsson emphasized a mixed hardware strategy, retaining Intel and AMD alongside Nvidia chips to allocate workloads optimally based on performance. As newer Intel and AMD models get released, Modal plans to evaluate them directly against Nvidia’s Vera chips to choose the best-performing hardware.
Nvidia’s Vera chips are also gaining adoption among other AI industry leaders including OpenAI, Anthropic, Oracle, and startups like Perplexity. Tracking Modal’s operational outcomes and Nvidia’s market penetration will provide insights into shifts in AI infrastructure preferences and vendor competition within India and globally.