{"slug": "ai-inference-startup-baseten-reportedly-raising-1-5b-months-after-its-last-mega", "title": "AI inference startup Baseten reportedly raising $1.5B months after its last mega round", "summary": "AI inference startup Baseten is close to finalizing a $1.5 billion funding round at a $13 billion valuation, just five months after raising $300 million at a $5 billion valuation. The round is split-priced, with some investors coming in at $13 billion and others at $11 billion, co-led by Spark Capital, Sands Capital, Altimeter Capital, and Wellington Management. Baseten benefits from the AI inference gold rush, offering cost-effective model routing for inference tasks.", "body_md": "AI inference company Baseten is close to finalizing a stunning $1.5 billion funding round at a $13 billion valuation, [the WSJ reports.](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-13-billion-ai-startup-betting-on-cheaper-alternatives-to-openai-anthropic-b9679603?mod=tech_lead_pos1) Just five months ago, the startup announced that it had raised a [$300 million Series E ](https://www.baseten.co/blog/announcing-baseten-s-300m-series-e/)at a $5 billion valuation. And that round was just nine months after raising a [$150 million Series D.](https://www.baseten.co/blog/announcing-baseten-150m-series-d/)\n\nIf finalized, this latest round would represent a 160% increase in valuation in less than half a year. However, the WSJ reports that this is a [split-priced round](https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/03/why-ai-startups-are-selling-the-same-equity-at-two-different-prices/), a tactic startups are using to boost their headline valuation and make lead investors look good on paper. Some investors in this latest funding round are reportedly coming in at a $13 billion valuation, while others at $11 billion, sources told the Journal. This deal is said to be co-led by Spark Capital, Sands Capital, Altimeter Capital, and Wellington Management.\n\nLaunched in 2019, Baseten is a startup benefiting from what The Next Wave hailed the [“inference gold rush,” ](https://thenextweb.com/news/baseten-1-5bn-round-13bn-valuation-ai-inference)in which VCs are pouring enormous amounts of money into companies building the inference layer. Inference is what the model does after a user submits a prompt. Baseten promises to handle inference quickly while controlling costs by routing requests to the best-for-task model, especially to competent, less-expensive open source alternatives.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-inference-startup-baseten-reportedly-raising-1-5b-months-after-its-last-mega", "canonical_source": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/18/ai-inference-startup-baseten-reportedly-raising-1-5b-months-after-its-last-mega-round/", "published_at": "2026-06-18 21:20:13+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-18 21:32:51.017577+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-startups", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Baseten", "Spark Capital", "Sands Capital", "Altimeter Capital", "Wellington Management", "OpenAI", "Anthropic"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-inference-startup-baseten-reportedly-raising-1-5b-months-after-its-last-mega", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-inference-startup-baseten-reportedly-raising-1-5b-months-after-its-last-mega.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-inference-startup-baseten-reportedly-raising-1-5b-months-after-its-last-mega.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-inference-startup-baseten-reportedly-raising-1-5b-months-after-its-last-mega.jsonld"}}