London is rapidly becoming one of the most important hubs for artificial intelligence development outside North America, attracting a growing number of companies building the infrastructure behind the AI boom. The latest company to deepen its presence in the UK capital is Modal Labs, a New York based AI infrastructure company that is opening a new London office as it looks to support European customers and expand its international footprint.
Modal provides cloud infrastructure designed specifically for AI workloads, helping developers run demanding applications without having to manage the underlying computing infrastructure themselves. The company’s platform supports AI inference, training, batch processing, notebooks, and secure sandboxes, with infrastructure capable of scaling across thousands of GPUs.
Establishing a London Presence
Modal is opening an office in London’s Marble Arch area, creating a dedicated base for its growing European operations. The new location is expected to accommodate up to 40 employees, with the company planning to have its London team in place by early September.
The move places Modal alongside a growing group of North American AI companies expanding their physical presence in London. The city’s concentration of AI researchers, engineers, technology companies, financial institutions, and enterprise customers has made it an increasingly attractive location for international AI businesses.
For Modal, the new office is expected to strengthen its ability to work directly with European companies as they build and deploy increasingly sophisticated AI applications.
Building Infrastructure for AI
Founded in 2021 by Erik Bernhardsson and Akshat Bubna, Modal was created around the idea that traditional cloud infrastructure was not designed for the demands of modern AI workloads.
The company’s platform allows developers to define cloud environments through code and scale computing resources according to demand. Modal says users can scale workloads from zero to more than 1,000 GPUs, while its infrastructure automatically distributes workloads across clouds and regions. (Modal)
The company supports a broad range of applications, including generative AI inference, machine learning, computational biology, media processing, and large scale batch workloads. (Modal)
A Major Focus on AI Inference
One of Modal’s key areas of focus is AI inference, the stage where trained models are actually used to generate predictions, responses, images, audio, or other outputs.
As businesses move AI applications from experimentation into production, inference infrastructure is becoming increasingly important. Companies need computing systems that can respond quickly to user demand while scaling efficiently as workloads fluctuate.
Modal’s infrastructure is designed around these requirements, with features including fast container startup, elastic GPU capacity, automated scaling, and integrated monitoring. Its platform can scale down when workloads decline and increase computing capacity when demand rises.
Stronger European Ambitions
The London expansion comes after a major funding milestone for Modal. In May, the company raised $355 million in a Series C financing round that valued it at $4.65 billion. Modal said at the time that it had grown fivefold since September and surpassed $300 million in annualised revenue.
The company already operates across New York, San Francisco, and Sweden, while employing around 170 people according to the information provided.
Modal’s leadership says its international outlook has been central to the company from the beginning. The London office represents another step in that strategy, giving the company a stronger physical presence in one of Europe’s most important technology markets.
Competing for Europe’s AI Opportunity
European companies are rapidly increasing investment in artificial intelligence, creating growing demand for reliable infrastructure capable of supporting everything from AI agents and large language models to scientific computing and automated applications.
Modal’s expansion into London reflects the broader competition among AI infrastructure providers to capture this growing market.
With its new office, expanding workforce, and recently strengthened financial position, Modal is seeking to deepen relationships with European customers and help more companies move AI workloads from development into production at scale.
