Artificial intelligence is in the middle of an arms race, and while everyone is focused on flashy consumer applications and foundation models, the real money might be in the picks and shovels—the companies building the AI infrastructure. A great example is Scale AI, a leader in data labeling and AI training. Investors looking for high-growth opportunities in AI should consider companies that operate in the backbone of the industry.

The Rise of AI Infrastructure Companies

While companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind battle for AI supremacy, they all rely on a robust ecosystem of infrastructure players to make their models work. From data labeling to model fine-tuning, API deployment, and computing power, the AI supply chain is becoming just as valuable as the AI models themselves.

As Andrej Karpathy, former director of AI at Tesla and researcher at OpenAI, put it:
“The most important factor in AI progress is not just compute or algorithms—it’s data. Companies that can provide high-quality, domain-specific data pipelines will have enormous leverage in this space.”

This shift in focus from pure model development to AI infrastructure is creating a new class of private companies that could become major players—or acquisition targets—over the next few years.

Key Private Companies Powering the AI Boom

If you’re looking for investment opportunities in private AI infrastructure, here are some of the most promising companies to watch:

1. Scale AI (Data Labeling & AI Training)
Scale AI is best known for providing high-quality, human-annotated data to train machine learning models. With clients like OpenAI, the U.S. Department of Defense, and leading autonomous vehicle companies, Scale AI is a key enabler of AI progress.

2. Hugging Face (AI Model Hosting & Collaboration)
Hugging Face has become the GitHub of AI, providing an open-source hub for AI models and tools. The company is building a dominant position in model hosting and fine-tuning, making it a critical part of the AI development workflow.

3. CoreWeave (Cloud Computing for AI)
CoreWeave started as an Ethereum mining operation but pivoted to providing high-performance cloud computing infrastructure for AI workloads. With demand for GPUs at an all-time high, CoreWeave is positioning itself as a key alternative to traditional cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud.

4. Weights & Biases (AI Experiment Tracking & Model Training)
As AI models grow more complex, tracking and managing experiments is becoming increasingly critical. Weights & Biases provides MLOps tools that help developers monitor and optimize AI model training.

5. MosaicML (Acquired by Databricks) – Custom AI Model Training
Before its acquisition by Databricks for $1.3 billion, MosaicML was focused on making AI model training cheaper and more efficient. Its technology is now integrated into Databricks’ ecosystem, showing the growing demand for AI efficiency solutions.

6. Adept AI (AI Agents & Automation)
Adept AI is focused on building AI agents that can execute software tasks based on natural language commands. While this seems closer to the application layer, its success depends on foundational AI infrastructure.

Why Investors Should Pay Attention

The AI infrastructure boom is still in its early innings, but the opportunity is massive. As Daniel Gross, former YC partner and AI investor, noted:

“Right now, AI is like electricity in the early 1900s—everyone is figuring out how to generate it, but the real winners will be those who figure out how to distribute and apply it at scale.”

Major tech companies are already snapping up infrastructure startups. NVIDIA invested in CoreWeave, Databricks acquired MosaicML, and OpenAI collaborates closely with Scale AI.

For investors looking to get exposure to the AI gold rush without betting on which AI model will win, infrastructure companies offer a compelling alternative. While most of these players remain private, keeping an eye on secondary markets, pre-IPO rounds, or venture capital-backed funds specializing in AI infrastructure could provide early access to these game-changing companies.