Why Can't a New AI Model Buy Its Own Inference Compute?

fal co-founders Burkay Gür and Gorkem Yurtseven say a lab with a new model has to plan inference compute before the launch. fal sits between model providers and the studios and application teams that consume the models, so it sees supply and demand on both sides. Compute is scarce enough that a successful model often cannot be served on hardware the lab buys alone. Partnering with an inference provider for the launch is the practical path. fal works closely with model providers. Customers usually run several models at once and time their own product releases to model releases.

Someone has to reserve capacity ahead of time. Otherwise the compute goes to coding agents or to whoever is spending more. Buying compute in advance lets fal serve both the model providers and the applications built on them. Advance buying has become fal's role over the last couple of months, because compute is so hard to come by.