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Feb 19, 2026
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Startups
Artificial Intelligence
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NewDecoded
4 min read
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Wasabi Technologies has raised $70 million in a new equity funding round led by L2 Point Management. This capital injection values the Boston based company at $1.8 billion and brings its total funding to over $600 million. Strategic participation from Pure Storage and existing investors like Fidelity highlights a major shift toward specialized AI storage.
The company plans to utilize the fresh capital to aggressively scale its AI infrastructure and global footprint. By targeting the explosive growth of generative AI and autonomous systems, Wasabi aims to provide a high performance alternative to traditional hyperscalers. This move emphasizes a transition from simple archival storage to a critical component of the modern AI processing stack.
Key to this expansion are specialized products like Wasabi AiR and Wasabi Fire. Wasabi AiR integrates AI powered metadata tagging for media archives, while Wasabi Fire utilizes NVMe storage for compute intensive machine learning training. These tools allow enterprises to manage massive datasets without the burden of unpredictable egress fees or hidden costs.
The involvement of Pure Storage cements a powerful alliance between on-premise flash arrays and cloud object storage. This hybrid model helps bridge the gap between high speed local hardware and scalable cloud environments. It validates Wasabi as an enterprise grade partner capable of handling the high throughput required by global AI developers and researchers.
Security remains a priority with features like Covert Copy, which provides ransomware resistance by creating immutable data layers. Currently, Wasabi manages over three exabytes of data for major clients like the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club. This established market presence provides a solid foundation for its next era of technological growth.
CEO David Friend stated that the company is ushering in a new generation of cloud storage built for data intensive workloads. He believes the funding underscores Wasabi's strong market position as organizations seek more predictable alternatives to mainstream cloud providers. The goal is to make storage both high performance and affordable for the future of intelligent infrastructure.
As AI continues to reshape how enterprises manage information, Wasabi is positioning itself as an essential data reservoir. The focus on intelligence by design ensures that storage does not become a bottleneck for innovation. With 16 global regions and a growing ecosystem, the company is set to store and process the world's most critical data.
This $70 million raise signals that Wasabi is no longer just a budget alternative to Amazon S3, but a strategic player in the AI infrastructure war. By partnering with Pure Storage, the company is attacking the high margin storage tiers of major cloud giants through a hybrid model that blends local speed with cloud scale. The introduction of NVMe based performance suggests a future where data is not just parked in the cloud, but actively fed into GPUs for real time training and inference. This shift addresses the "Dark Data" problem, allowing enterprises to search and monetize vast archives that were previously inaccessible.