The AI market looks nothing like the narrative

The Runpod State of AI report diverges from typical AI reports by focusing on the actual infrastructure usage of over 500,000 developers and companies globally, rather than relying on benchmarks or surveys. Utilizing a mature data foundation and internal pipelines, the report reveals that ComfyUI dominates image workflows, challenging the public narrative by showing node-based, modular pipelines as the industry standard. Additionally, Qwen has surpassed Llama as the most deployed self-hosted LLM on the platform, with Llama 4 showing minimal adoption despite significant media attention. In video AI, upscaling workloads are twice as prevalent as generation, indicating a strategic "draft, then refine" approach. The report highlights that AI has become a global, production-grade infrastructure, with usage patterns emphasizing performance, efficiency, and workflow control, and notes the growing significance of Hopper and Blackwell GPUs. The report provides insights into capital and compute flow, and its full version offers detailed infrastructure patterns and future predictions.