Blackstone and Coatue are leading the round, which values the infrastructure provider at $14.5 billion pre-money. Nvidia-backed cloud-computing company Lambda is raising up to $4 billion in a final round of fundraising before the company’s planned initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. The new funding will give the company a valuation of $14.5 billion, excluding the amount of the money raised.
The pre-IPO funding round is led by investment firms Blackstone and Coatue Management, both of which have been highly active in the artificial-intelligence and data-center industries. Lambda management is targeting an IPO in 2027, subject to execution and market conditions, according to a letter sent to the company’s limited partners reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Lambda’s backlog—or total orders that have yet to be filled or shipped—grew from $15 billion in June to $50 billion in September of this year, according to the letter. A Lambda spokesman declined to comment. Since the spring, the company has been making personnel moves seen as preparing it for public-market scrutiny.
In May, Lambda replaced Chief Executive Stephen Balaban, one of the startup’s co-founders, with Michel Combes, a veteran CEO formerly of Brightspeed, Soft Bank International, Sprint and Alcatel-Lucent. Balaban shifted to the role of chief technology officer.
Source: Wall Street Journal US Business · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing