According to the Wall Street Journal, cloud provider Lambda has raised up to $4 billion at a pre-money valuation of $14.5 billion, in what could be its last private round before a planned IPO in 2027. Coatue Management and Blackstone are leading the round.
Lambda’s backlog rose from $15 billion in June to $50 billion in September, according to a letter to investors seen by the magazine. While this may seem like a significant increase in demand, much of that increase appears to be driven by a $35 billion commitment from one company, Anthropic, which signed a deal with Lambda in late August.
That means Lambda’s valuation, which has risen significantly since its 2025 funding round, may depend heavily on Anthropic’s ability to continue making payments. Still, it’s clear that reliable GPU capacity is in such short supply that investors are still willing to bet on companies that provide it, especially those with large contracts with major AI labs.
For neoclouds like Lambda, the issue is less the demand and more the cost of meeting the demand. Funding the data center expansion is largely debt-financed, and Lambda just raised another $1 billion last week, but lenders are becoming more selective about who they give cash to and under what circumstances. Lambda’s decision to raise more money this time not only sets the tone for the IPO price, but also gives it access to more capital before public market scrutiny arrives.
If Lambda does IPO (the company was reportedly planning to debut this year but postponed it due to market uncertainty), it would join other Nvidia-backed neoclouds such as CoreWeave and Nebius, which currently rely on the health of their stock to finance data center construction. UK neocloud Nscale filed for an IPO last month and is expected to start trading soon.
Lambda, Cotu and Blackstone did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
