Intel vs Modal

Physical AI in its 'LEGO era', says ex-Nvidia VC Amulya Vishwanath

In a TechCrunch Equity interview, Amulya Vishwanath, founder and managing partner of Techable Ventures, discussed the current state of physical AI. She argues the industry is in a 'LEGO era' of foundational building blocks (robotic hands, actuators) rather than a 'ChatGPT moment' for robotics. Vishwanath, a former Nvidia product marketer, emphasizes the importance of foundational software and talent as key moats for startups. She sees a future where general- and special-purpose robots will improve and scale, comparing the trajectory to the internet era and the Industrial Revolution.

• Amulya Vishwanath is founder and managing partner of Techable Ventures, a VC firm focused on physical AI.
• She previously worked nearly seven years as a product marketer at Nvidia.
• She described physical AI as being in a 'LEGO era' with foundational building blocks being rethought.

Intel, Broadcom CEOs warn capital crunch could bottleneck AI

At the DBS Asia Future Forward Conference in Singapore, the CEOs of Intel and Broadcom, Lip-Bu Tan and Hock Tan, warned that access to capital could become the biggest constraint on the AI boom, potentially surpassing shortages of semiconductors, memory, or power. Hock Tan highlighted that financing data centers and chip purchases becomes more expensive with rising borrowing costs, while Lip-Bu Tan stressed the need for tangible returns on AI investments. Despite these concerns, both executives remain bullish on near-term demand, expecting compute supply to lag demand through 2029-2030. They noted some supply bottlenecks may ease by 2028-2029, but sustained growth depends on business adoption and economic benefits of AI.

• Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan warned about capital constraints on AI at the DBS Asia Future Forward Conference, Singapore.
• Hock Tan stated that capital, not semiconductor or power shortages, is the biggest constraint on AI expansion.
• Both CEOs remain bullish on near-term AI demand, with supply expected to lag demand through 2029-2030.

Meta Muse boosts AMD as AI agents shift workloads to CPUs

The rise of personal AI agents is shifting some AI workloads from GPUs to CPUs, benefiting AMD and Intel. Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots, both running on AMD-powered virtual machines, have driven demand and boosted AMD's stock. AMD's data center revenue more than doubled to $6.7 billion in Q2 2026, and the company now holds about 46% of the x86 CPU market. While Nvidia remains dominant in GPUs, analysts see AMD as a strong contender in the CPU space for agentic workloads. Meta and OpenAI are largely CPU-agnostic, and major cloud providers are developing custom Arm-based chips, adding competition. The CPU market is projected to reach $220 billion by 2030, with AMD aiming for over half of it.

• Meta's Muse AI agent topped the Apple App Store within two weeks of its September launch.
• AMD's data center revenue more than doubled to $6.7 billion in Q2 2026, almost 60% of total sales.
• AMD holds about 46% of the x86 CPU market, according to Mercury Research.

Modal Hits $1B ARR, Raises $750M Series D at $15.75B Valuation

Modal, an AI infrastructure startup, announced it has crossed $1 billion in annualized run rate and raised a $750 million Series D round at a $15.75 billion valuation, led by Accel. The company's usage has tripled since its Series C and grown more than 15x year-over-year. Modal's Sandboxes product, launched in 2023 in response to developers using LLMs to generate code, has become a $300 million run rate product on its own, with nearly 3 billion sandboxes spun up and scaling to a million concurrent. The funding round marks Modal's transition from an infra unicorn to an infra decacorn, positioning it as a key player in the AI infrastructure space.

• Modal raised a $750M Series D at a $15.75B valuation, led by Accel.
• Modal crossed $1B in annualized run rate.
• Usage has tripled since Series C and grown over 15x year-over-year.

Runtime recap: the full keynote, VM Sandboxes, Modal Clusters, and more.

Modal announces a runtime product update with VM Sandboxes and Modal Clusters, as highlighted in a blog post.

Modal Labs closing in on $750M round at $15.75B valuation

AI inference infrastructure provider Modal Labs is nearing a $750 million funding round led by Accel at a $15.75 billion valuation, according to a source. This would more than triple its valuation from $4.65 billion in May. The round comes amid surging demand for inference services, with other startups like Baseten, Fireworks, and Fal also raising at higher valuations. Modal Labs, founded in 2021 by Erik Bernhardsson and Akshat Bubna, provides infrastructure for training and running AI models without managing servers. The company has surpassed $300 million in annualized revenue as of May. The funding talks follow a security incident in July where a customer's data was compromised, but Modal's platform was not breached.

• Modal Labs is nearing a $750 million funding round led by Accel at a $15.75 billion valuation.
• The round would more than triple Modal Labs' valuation from $4.65 billion in May.
• Modal Labs has surpassed $300 million in annualized revenue as of May.