Nvidia Backs Baseten With $150 Million as AI Inference Becomes the Next Battleground

Overview

• Baseten closed a $300 million round at a $5 billion valuation led by IVP and Alphabet’s CapitalG, with Nvidia contributing $150 million.
• Baseten’s platform focuses on deploying and running large models, and it now supports Nvidia’s Nemotron 3 Nano and text-to-video inferencing in the U.S., Finland, and France.
• Mizuho estimates inference accounts for 20%–40% of AI workloads today and could reach 60%–80% within five years.
• CoinCentral reports Nvidia is paying $20 billion for Groq’s inference technology and bringing over many employees, a deal not confirmed by Nvidia in these reports.
• Nvidia shares fell 4.4% during the regular session on the day of the news and rose 0.7% after hours.