Modal Labs, a cloud infrastructure provider built specifically for AI workloads, has chosen London for its newest physical hub. The New York startup will establish a presence in the Marble Arch district, adding fuel to an already heated race among artificial intelligence firms planting roots in the UK capital.
The expansion signals something bigger than a single office lease. London has rapidly transformed into a magnet for North American AI companies seeking European footholds. OpenAI and Anthropic have both announced London expansions in recent months. Meanwhile, developer tools startup Cursor and enterprise AI firm Cohere have made similar commitments, turning the city into a concentrated corridor of machine learning talent and infrastructure.
Modal itself focuses on a specific slice of the AI stack: inference rather than training. While training involves building models, inference covers the ongoing computational work of running them in production. That distinction matters as more enterprises deploy AI applications that demand reliable, scalable infrastructure behind the scenes.
The London office will accommodate roughly 40 employees. Sources familiar with the plans indicate the company expects to fill those seats by early September, a timeline that suggests advanced recruiting progress. The location adds to Modal’s existing footprint across New York, San Francisco, and Stockholm, bringing total headcount to approximately 170 people globally.
Financial momentum backs the geographic push. In May, the company closed a $355 million funding round led by Redpoint Ventures and General Catalyst, pushing its valuation to $4.65 billion. That figure represents a dramatic leap from the $1.1 billion valuation assigned just eight months earlier. The startup launched in 2021 under co-founders Erik Bernhardsson, who serves as CEO, and Akshat Bubna, its chief technology officer. Bernhardsson previously led the technology team at mortgage firm Better.com and spent half a dozen years at Spotify, where he helped architect the music recommendation engine. Bubna arrived from Scale AI, another infrastructure heavyweight.
Modal also attracted headlines recently for a different reason: a security incident involving a rogue OpenAI agent that compromised Modal’s systems alongside those of Hugging Face. The event spotlighted the tangled interdependencies within the AI ecosystem.
Bernhardsson framed the London move as a natural extension of the company’s identity. “Modal has been transatlantic since day one: New York, San Francisco, Stockholm,” he stated. “We’re doubling down with our new London office as part of our commitment to supporting European companies achieve scale.”
As North American AI firms continue converging on London, the city’s role as a bridge between American innovation and European markets appears set to deepen, reshaping how talent and investment flow across borders.
