Fireworks, Fal Consider New Rounds as Inference Demand Soars

Startups such as Fal and Fireworks AI that sell access to AI models and servers have been ringing up sales as developers use them to run models quickly, sparking a new investor rush to pour money into them.

Fal, which specializes in providing such inference services for video and image generation models such as Google’s Nano Banana models, has spoken to investors about raising new funding at a $15 billion valuation, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Talks are early and the company could aim for a higher valuation, of $17 billion to $20 billion, according to a third person.