US AI infrastructure startup Modal Labs is opening a London office, marking the latest North American AI firm to invest in bricks and mortar in London or up their presence in the capital.
New York–headquartered Modal provides computing infrastructure for AI workloads, with a focus on AI inference, the process of running an AI model, as opposed to training an AI model.
The startup, founded in 2021, is opening an office in the Marble Arch area of London, sources say. The space can hold up to 40 workers, and Modal plans to have all its London staff in place by early September, sources say.
Modal is joining several North American AI firms which have recently announced new London office openings or expansions, including AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic, and AI startups Cursor and Cohere.
In May, Modal raised $355m in a new round of financing, valuing the company at $4.65bn, in a round led by Redpoint Ventures and General Catalyst, up from its $1.1bn valuation eight months before.
Modal, which has offices in New York, San Francisco and Sweden and employs around 170 people, was also recently in the news when it was revealed that the OpenAI rogue agent hacked Modal, as well as Hugging Face.
Modal was co-founded by CEO Erik Bernhardsson, who previously ran the tech team at mortgage tech firm Better.com and also spent six years at Spotify, where he was central to building its music recommendation engine. Its other co-founder is Akshat Bubna, who serves as chief technology officer, who was previously an engineer at Scale AI, the US AI infrastructure startup.
Bernhardsson says: "Modal has been transatlantic since day one: New York, San Francisco, Stockholm. We’re doubling down with our new London office as part of our commitment to helping European companies achieve scale.”
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Facts Only
* Modal Labs is a US AI infrastructure startup.
* Modal provides computing infrastructure for AI workloads, focusing on AI inference.
* The company is opening an office in the Marble Arch area of London.
* The new space can hold up to 40 workers.
* Modal plans to have all London staff in place by early September.
* Modal is joining other North American AI firms with London offices or expansions, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Cohere.
* Modal raised $355 million in a financing round in May, valuing the company at $4.65 billion.
* Modal has offices in New York, San Francisco, and Sweden.
* The company employs approximately 170 people.
* The company was hacked by an OpenAI rogue agent, affecting Modal and Hugging Face.
* Co-founder Erik Bernhardsson previously worked at Better.com and Spotify.
* Co-founder Akshat Bubna previously worked at Scale AI.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The pattern emerging is the strategic use of physical presence as a vector for validating and expanding intangible, high-value technology. Modal’s expansion into London mirrors a broader trend where North American tech firms establish "bricks and mortar" footholds in Europe to achieve perceived scale, legitimacy, and access to talent. This move is contextualized by its inclusion among other major AI players like OpenAI and Anthropic, suggesting a competitive race for geographic anchoring in the European AI ecosystem. The juxtaposition of the successful financing round ($4.65bn valuation) with the focus on physical infrastructure suggests that securing tangible real estate is now viewed as an essential component of achieving market authority in the AI space, rather than merely a cost center. Furthermore, the background of the company—having been targeted by an internal actor (the rogue agent)—introduces a critical tension: establishing physical presence while simultaneously managing profound security vulnerabilities. This creates a dynamic where physical expansion both promises access and introduces new vectors for potential exposure, forcing an implicit negotiation between external legitimacy and internal operational security.
What assumptions are being made about the relationship between physical presence and technological capability in establishing AI market dominance? How does the narrative frame the inherent risks of operating foundational AI infrastructure across disparate international jurisdictions? What is the long-term implication of valuing real estate acquisition alongside algorithmic innovation?
Sentinel — Human
The text reads like typical business reporting, effectively synthesizing disparate facts into a coherent narrative without strong synthetic markers.