Lambda is seeking to raise up to $4 billion at a $14.5 billion pre-money valuation in what could be its last private funding round before a planned initial public offering, according to TechCrunch and Reuters, both citing the Wall Street Journal. Coatue Management and Blackstone are leading the round, the outlets reported.
The AI cloud computing company now aims to go public in 2027 after an earlier plan to debut in 2026 was delayed amid market uncertainty, TechCrunch reported.
Lambda's backlog of unfilled orders grew from $15 billion in June to $50 billion in September, Reuters reported. Much of that increase traces to a single $35 billion compute commitment that Anthropic signed with Lambda in late August, according to TechCrunch.
Representatives for Lambda, Coatue and Blackstone did not immediately respond to a request for comment, TechCrunch reported.
A $50 billion backlog built mostly on one customer's commitment is a concentrated bet, and investors are pricing Lambda at $14.5 billion partly on Anthropic's ability to keep paying for that compute. Founders shopping for GPU capacity should watch whether Lambda's public filing, whenever it comes, discloses how many other customers look like that.