# DigitalOcean's Inference Cloud and 2026 Plans

DevFeed: [DigitalOcean's Inference Cloud and 2026 Plans](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/building-the-inference-cloud-and-what-comes-next-19863.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/building-inference-cloud-what-comes-next>)

Author: Paddy Srinivasan

Published: 2026-01-07T17:29:20Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [DigitalOcean](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/digitalocean.md>)

Topics: [Digital Ocean](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/digital-ocean.md>), [Cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud.md>), [Inference](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/inference.md>), [AI Platform](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-platform.md>)

Tags: [agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agents.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [ai-ml](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-ml.md>), [ai-platform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-platform.md>), [ai-tools](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-tools.md>), [apis](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apis.md>), [applications](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/applications.md>), [cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud.md>), [digitalocean](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/digitalocean.md>), [inference](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/inference.md>), [platform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/platform.md>)

## AI overview

DigitalOcean describes its 2025 development of an inference cloud that unifies AI and cloud workflows for digital native enterprises and AI-native businesses. The article also highlights the Gradient AI Platform and plans to share more about 2026.

## Source excerpt

2025 was a defining year for DigitalOcean, not only because we shipped more products and features than ever before, but because we solidified our vision about what the next era of cloud and AI will look like. We supported customers as they ran inference at scale, launched new products, engaged with our community in-person and online, and built out our inference cloud, which gives digital native enterprises and AI-native businesses the power to integrate AI and cloud workflows through one unified platform. At DigitalOcean, we know our customers are busy working on the same things we are--innovating with speed, integrating AI into their applications, and navigating rapid industry changes. Developers and digital native enterprises don't want complexity, they want the ability to build quickly, scale with ease, and create with AI without requiring additional resources or time. Everything we built in 2025 was guided by those principles, and I can't wait to share our 2026 plans with you soon. AI built for today's businesses AI crossed an important threshold in 2025, becoming foundational to the work of not only large enterprises, but also digital native enterprises and startups. Our upcoming Currents research report confirms this, showing that 52% of organizations are actively implementing AI solutions, optimizing AI performance, or treating AI as a core component of their business strategy, compared to 35% who said the same in 2024. Our mission in 2025 was to make AI as simple and accessible as possible to cloud builders. To that end, in January we launched DigitalOcean Gradient AI Platform, and rapidly expanded its capabilities over the course of the year. The Gradient AI Platforms enables builders to: Build scalable AI agents: Deploy AI tools tailored to your specific needs using hosted third party LLMs, RAG workflows, and function calls. Seamlessly integrate with workflows: Embed agents into your applications through APIs or chatbot plugins. Leverage guardrails: Utilize