Clouded Judgement: The AI Factory and SaaS Valuation Multiples

The article discusses the emergence of 'AI Factories'—integrated systems where companies build, fine-tune, deploy, and continuously optimize their own AI models using open-source infrastructure—and provides comprehensive SaaS valuation analysis showing median 4.8x EV/NTM revenue multiples with significant variation by growth rate. Current SaaS benchmarks reveal median 12% NTM growth, 76% gross margins, 108% net retention, and a Rule of 40 median of 70 across public companies.