Building or backing a AI infrastructure company? See how the money is really made

Updated October 202670+ pagesPDF

AI Infrastructure Business Models
Cover of NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure Business Models report, 2026 edition
CoreWeave or Nebius: who is closer to a profitable AI cloud? CoreWeave, by one step. It sells about four times more and both now bring in cash from running their clouds. Neither makes a real profit yet, and both spend far more on data centers than they earn. Chart from NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure report.
Is renting an AI chip getting cheaper? Yes, then no. Renting an Nvidia H100 from a specialist AI cloud got about 30% cheaper during 2025, then prices rose again in 2026. Renting the same chip from Amazon, Microsoft or Google still costs two to three times more. Chart from NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure report.
How much of the AI clouds’ order books is OpenAI? A lot. About $300B of Oracle’s $664B of signed contracts comes from OpenAI, and nearly half of Microsoft’s. If OpenAI stumbles, these backlogs shrink with it. Chart from NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure report.
Who actually makes money from AI infrastructure? The companies furthest from the customer. Memory, chip and foundry makers keep $45 to $64 of every $100 they sell as profit. CoreWeave and Nebius, which rent the chips out, lose money, and Oracle earns mostly from software. Chart from NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure report.
How expensive are AI infrastructure companies, measured by their sales? Not the chip renters. CoreWeave is priced under 5 times its yearly sales, like most companies. Nebius, Cerebras and Nscale sit in bubble territory, 35 to 50 times. Chart from NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure report.
How long does it take for an AI chip to pay for itself? About a year to two years of renting it out. An Nvidia H100 costs about $31,000; rented out day and night at today’s price, it brings that back in about 15 months, well before the 4 to 6 years the AI clouds expect it to last. Chart from NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure report.
Which AI infrastructure companies are priced highest against their sales? China’s GPU makers, at 55 to 70 times a year of sales, then Cerebras and Nebius. Nvidia trades at about 17 times; the AI clouds and memory makers mostly at 4 to 8. Chart from NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure report.
Is Nvidia paying its own customers to buy its chips? In part. Since 2025, Nvidia has backed at least eight companies that buy or rent out its GPUs, with shares, guarantees and rent-backs. The headlines were bigger than the deals: OpenAI’s “up to $100B” became $30B. Chart from NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure report.
Which AI inference start-ups are racing to $1B in yearly sales? Fireworks AI and Modal have passed $1B a year, and Together AI has signed more than $1B of yearly contracts. Fireworks got there from about $130M in fourteen months. Baseten, fal and Runpod are still below $600M. Chart from NewMarketPitch's AI Infrastructure report.

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Inside the report

  • Which business models are winning
  • Who signs the giant contracts
  • Who makes money, who burns cash
  • How much debt is behind it
  • Who are the top companies today
  • Who’s ahead, and who’s falling behind
  • What are their valuations
  • Who’s getting funded, and by whom
  • What are the biggest unsolved problems
  • What has changed in the last 12 months
  • Where are the biggest opportunities
  • Who are the likely future winners
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Verified data with sourcesUpdated in October 2026