Wasabi raises $70m to scale AI-driven cloud storage

By Vriti Gothi

Wasabi Technologies has raised $70 million in new equity funding as it positions itself to capitalise on the rapid growth of AI-driven data workloads and the evolving economics of cloud infrastructure.

The Boston-based cloud storage provider was valued at $1.8 billion in the round, which was led by L2 Point Management, with participation from Pure Storage and existing backers including Fidelity Management & Research Company. The latest raise takes Wasabi’s total funding to more than $600 million.

The company said the capital will be used to expand its AI-focused infrastructure capabilities, extend its global presence, and further develop its product portfolio to address the surging volume and complexity of enterprise and AI-generated data.

Founded in 2017, Wasabi entered the market with a cloud storage model designed to challenge hyperscalers by offering predictable pricing without egress or API request fees. That approach has resonated with organisations facing escalating storage costs as data-intensive applications such as generative AI, machine learning and real-time analytics move into production.

In recent years, Wasabi has broadened its offering beyond core object storage to support AI-centric use cases. Its portfolio includes Wasabi AiR, which applies AI-driven metadata tagging to stored data, and Wasabi Fire, an NVMe-based storage tier designed for high-performance training, inference and real-time data pipelines. The company has also invested in security features such as multi-user authorisation and ransomware-resilient data protection.

The funding round comes amid heightened investor focus on the less visible layers of AI infrastructure. While compute and GPUs have attracted the bulk of attention and capital, storage is emerging as a critical bottleneck as organisations struggle to manage, move and secure growing data volumes.

Wasabi reports managing more than three exabytes of data across 16 global regions, serving customers in sectors including cyber resilience, media and entertainment, and enterprise IT. As AI-driven data growth accelerates, the company is positioning itself as a specialised infrastructure player addressing a critical, and increasingly strategic, layer of the AI stack.