Key Points
You cannot invest directly in the hottest AI startups on the market, including OpenAI and Anthropic, unless you are an accredited investor or venture capitalist. However, you can still follow these companies, see how much funding they attract and see if they are heading towards an IPO.
One such hot startup is Baseten, an AI infrastructure company that focuses on the inference layer, the part of the AI stack that connects a trained AI model to user-facing applications. Its technology can help businesses reduce inference costs by more than 40%.
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Basten’s revenue grew from $2.7 million in 2023 to $15.8 million in 2025, and its valuation reached $5 billion after its latest $300 million funding round. Its main investors during this round were IVP, CapitalG and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). This support from Nvidia, which contributed $150 million to this funding round, suggests that this is a promising long-term play in the market. The AI market expansion.
Baseten’s defensible niche and explosive growth rates will likely attract even more funding this year. It could also become a tempting takeover target for big tech companies. If not acquired, it would certainly be an AI IPO, but investors should be wary of its valuations.
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Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Ranks and Recommends Nvidia. The Mad Motley has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.