Poolside
Poolside builds frontier AI foundation models specialized for code generation. $626M Series B at $3B valuation; founded by ex-GitHub CTO Jason Warner.
Acquired Poolside
Acquired · August 2026
In August 2026 NVIDIA agreed to pay Poolside $6B to license its Model Factory, the system behind its Laguna coding models, hire 109 of the staff who built it, and invest a further $1B at a $12B valuation. Poolside told investors it is not an acquisition and not an acquihire; the three founders stay and the company continues to operate independently.
Acquired by NVIDIA.
Is Poolside shut down?
No — Poolside is still operating. Its acquisition by NVIDIA was announced on August 20, 2026, and the product continues to ship. We list it in the ToolDirectory.AI graveyard's acquired-but-operating section and watch for post-acquisition changes.
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Overview
Poolside: Frontier Code Foundation Models
Poolside is Frontier AI lab building code-specialized foundation models from scratch. Most enterprise customers are blocked from using GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or Claude on regulated codebases. Poolside's pitch is a frontier-quality alternative trained specifically for code, deployable on customer-owned GPU clusters, with the model never leaving the enterprise boundary. Warner's GitHub credibility and the $626M war chest let Poolside compete head-on with the foundation labs for the regulated coding-AI market.
Deal note (August 2026): NVIDIA agreed to pay Poolside $6B for a non-exclusive licence to its Model Factory, extended offers to 109 Poolside engineers, and invested $1B at a $12B pre-money valuation. Poolside's letter to investors describes the transaction as neither an acquisition nor an acquihire; the founders remain and the company continues to operate.
Key Features
- Frontier AI lab building code-specialized foundation models from scratch
- Founded in 2023 by Jason Warner (ex-CTO GitHub) and Eiso Kant (ex-CTO Athenian)
- Raised $626M Series B in October 2024 at a $3B valuation, led by Bain Capital Ventures and DST Global
- Models trained on proprietary multi-trillion-token code datasets with reinforcement learning from code execution feedback
- Air-gapped on-prem deployment for regulated industries (banks, defense, healthcare)
- Headquartered in San Francisco with engineering offices in Paris
- Investors include Nvidia, Bain Capital, Redpoint Ventures, DST Global, and StepStone Group
Ideal Use Case
Large enterprises that cannot send code to public APIs — banks, defense contractors, healthcare systems, and government — that want a frontier-quality coding model deployed inside their own infrastructure with full data sovereignty.
Why Use Poolside
Most enterprise customers are blocked from using GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or Claude on regulated codebases. Poolside's pitch is a frontier-quality alternative trained specifically for code, deployable on customer-owned GPU clusters, with the model never leaving the enterprise boundary. Warner's GitHub credibility and the $626M war chest let Poolside compete head-on with the foundation labs for the regulated coding-AI market.
FAQ
Q: Who founded Poolside? A: Jason Warner (former CTO of GitHub) and Eiso Kant (former CTO of Athenian) co-founded Poolside in 2023.
Q: How much has Poolside raised? A: Approximately $626M Series B closed in October 2024 at a $3B valuation, with Bain Capital Ventures and DST Global leading.
Q: What makes Poolside different from Cursor or Copilot? A: Poolside is a foundation-model lab, not a UI layer. It trains its own frontier code models and licenses them to enterprises — typically deployed on-prem rather than via API.
Q: Is Poolside available now? A: Poolside operates in private partnership mode with select enterprise design partners; broad GA has not been announced as of mid-2026.
Q: Where is Poolside based? A: Headquartered in San Francisco with engineering hubs in Paris, France.
tl;dr
Poolside is the well-funded frontier code-model lab building enterprise-deployable AI for regulated industries that cannot use Cursor or Copilot. Founded by ex-GitHub CTO Jason Warner; $626M raised at $3B; targeting on-prem coding AI for banks and defense.
Related
Looking for more options? Browse the Developer Tools directory or read our best AI coding tools listicle. Poolside is also tracked on Crunchbase.
Why Use Poolside
