In a major development for the cloud computing and AI infrastructure sector, AMD and hedge fund LuminArx Capital Management have led a $333 million investment round in Vultr, valuing the cloud infrastructure provider at $3.5 billion.
Founded in 2014, Vultr has operated as a self-funded company until now, offering cloud infrastructure and GPU rental services to businesses worldwide. The company currently maintains 32 data center locations across six continents, making it one of the largest privately-held cloud infrastructure providers globally.
The investment comes at a time when demand for GPU computing resources is surging due to the rapid growth in artificial intelligence applications. Vultr offers both AMD and Nvidia GPUs through its platform, along with processors from AMD and Intel.
The fresh capital will fuel Vultr's international expansion plans and help acquire additional GPU hardware to meet growing customer demand. The company is already constructing its first supercompute cluster in Chicago, which will feature thousands of AMD GPUs.
"We will never seek to build GPUs and compete with that layer," stated Vultr CEO J.J. Kardwell, emphasizing the company's focus on providing cloud infrastructure rather than developing hardware. Kardwell noted that AMD's GPUs offer competitive price-performance ratios for AI inference workloads, which are becoming increasingly important for organizations deploying AI at scale.
For AMD, the investment represents a strategic move to expand its presence in the cloud AI market, where it competes with Nvidia. The partnership will position AMD as Vultr's preferred AI hardware provider, though without formal exclusivity.
Notable customers using Vultr's infrastructure include Microsoft's Activision Blizzard. The company's valuation now matches that of its public competitor DigitalOcean, which went public in 2021.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as the exclusive financial advisor for this transaction, which marks Vultr's first equity financing since its founding.