Tinfoil
Tinfoil is a San Francisco-based confidential computing platform that delivers verifiably private AI inference and containerized workloads inside hardware-isolated enclaves, serving developers, researchers, and enterprises via an OpenAI-compatible API, hosted Private Chat, and Tinfoil Containers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2024
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Tinfoil does
Tinfoil is a San Francisco-based private AI infrastructure company founded in 2024 that delivers AI inference and compute inside hardware-isolated confidential virtual machines (AMD SEV-SNP, Intel TDX, NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell GPUs with confidential computing enabled). The core technical premise is that user data is encrypted in memory and only decrypted inside the enclave, with cryptographic remote attestation verified client-side on every connection, so that even Tinfoil cannot access customer data during processing. The product surface comprises three offerings: Private Chat (a hosted AI chat interface at $20/month, available on web and iOS), Private Inference API (an OpenAI-compatible API with usage-based pricing supporting chat, embeddings, audio transcription, and document processing across open-source models), and Tinfoil Containers (launched March 2026, enabling any Docker image to run inside an attested enclave, priced at $20/month plus usage). Revenue mechanics blend low-friction self-serve PLG (subscriptions plus usage-based API) with an enterprise field-sales motion for custom GPU capacity, multi-year contracts, and signed order forms.
The company goes to market through a developer-first model: instant online sign-up, immediate API key issuance, six SDKs (Python, JavaScript, Go, Rust, Swift, CLI), and integration with coding agents such as OpenCode, Cline, Kilo Code, Factory Droid, and Hermes Agent via Tinfoil Proxy. Customer evidence is concentrated in research, education, and frontier-AI use cases — UC Berkeley running custom Docker containers, the Open Anonymity Project at Stanford and University of Michigan migrating from Azure confidential containers, Workshop Labs building the Silo multi-GPU private post-training and inference stack on Tinfoil, and Pour Demain running gray-box interpretability audits on a 744B-parameter model without exposing weights. The company has raised approximately $7.75M in total funding across a July 2024 pre-seed ($625K) and a July 2025 seed ($7.125M led by Scale Rise with Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund), followed by a Tekedia Capital investment in May 2026. Operational posture includes SOC 2 Type II certification, public transparency logs via Sigstore, membership in the Confidential Computing Consortium, and partnerships with NVIDIA (Inception), Meta (Llama case study), Red Hat, Intel (Liftoff), Cloudflare (Launchpad), Canonical, Trail of Bits, and MIT.
Tinfoil firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Tinfoil
- Legal name
- Tinfoil, Inc.
- Website
- https://tinfoil.sh
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2024
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Tinfoil is a San Francisco-based confidential computing platform that delivers verifiably private AI inference and containerized workloads inside hardware-isolated enclaves, serving developers, researchers, and enterprises via an OpenAI-compatible API, hosted Private Chat, and Tinfoil Containers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Tinfoil industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Confidential AI Infrastructure
- akta.pro primary industry
- Confidential AI & Privacy-Preserving ML (federated learning, MPC, HE, TEEs) (HDAAAKAI)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Privacy-Preserving ML & Data Protection (e.g., federated learning, differential privacy) (HDAAAMAD), Privacy-Preserving On-Device ML (secure enclaves, TEEs, differential privacy) (HDAAAJAH), Secure Model Deployment & Runtime Protection (sandboxing, isolation) (HDAAAKAH), Responsible AI, Security & Privacy Platforms (Safety, Guardrails, PII) (HDAEANAG)
Keywords
Where Tinfoil is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Tinfoil business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Private Chat Subscription: Monthly subscription at $20/month for Private Chat service providing access to AI assistants with up to 2M tokens/hour, projects, web search, cross-device sync, speech-to-text, and document upload.
- Private Inference API: Usage-based pricing model for API access. Pay per token/usage for AI inference through OpenAI-compatible endpoints. No data retention of prompts or responses after response is returned.
- Tinfoil Containers: Hybrid pricing model combining $20/month base fee plus usage-based charges for container deployments running Docker images in secure enclaves with GPU allocation options.
- Enterprise GPU Access: Custom enterprise pricing for GPU access requests with dedicated capacity for larger workloads, requiring use case description and custom engagement.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Private Chat - Individual |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Private Inference API |
| Hybrid | Monthly | Tinfoil Containers |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Enterprise GPU Access |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels9 records
Tinfoil product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Tinfoil provides verifiably private AI infrastructure by running AI inference workloads inside hardware-isolated confidential computing enclaves (AMD SEV-SNP, Intel TDX, NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell GPUs). The company offers Private Chat for individual consumers, an OpenAI-compatible Private Inference API for developers, and Tinfoil Containers for deploying custom Docker workloads in secure enclaves with cryptographic remote attestation verified client-side on every connection.
Product overview
Tinfoil is a private AI platform built around secure hardware enclaves and confidential computing, offering three principal services: Private Chat (hosted AI chat interface with enclave-based inference and encrypted backups), Private Inference API (OpenAI-compatible inference endpoints with zero data retention), and Tinfoil Containers (confidential compute platform for deploying custom Docker workloads in secure enclaves). The platform also provides developer tooling including Tinfoil Proxy for attestation-verified connections and an Admin API for programmatic management. All services run on NVIDIA GPU confidential computing infrastructure (Hopper and Blackwell architectures) with cryptographic attestation, transparency logs, and SOC 2 Type II compliance.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Private Chat: A hosted AI chat interface where chat inference runs inside secure enclaves with encrypted backups.
- Private Inference API
- Tinfoil Containers
Products and services
- Private Chat Hosted AI chat interface where inference runs inside hardware-isolated secure enclaves, ensuring conversations remain private and inaccessible even to Tinfoil. Includes encrypted chat backups with device-held keys, multi-device sync, web search, speech-to-text, document upload, and projects. Available in browser and iOS at $20/month with up to 2M tokens/hour.
- Private Inference API OpenAI-compatible inference endpoints that run AI models inside secure enclaves with provable zero data retention. Supports chat completions, embeddings, audio transcription, and document processing. Usage-based pricing with open-source models including Llama, DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, Gemma, and Qwen families, accessed via Python, JavaScript, Go, Rust, Swift, and CLI SDKs.
- Tinfoil Containers Confidential compute platform enabling deployment of any Docker image inside hardware-isolated secure enclaves with cryptographic attestation. Supports custom AI workloads, application backends, and training pipelines with customer-managed encryption keys. Multi-GPU support (1, 2, or 4 GPUs) available for frontier model inference and post-training. Priced at $20/month plus usage-based charges.
Quantifiable outcome
- Less than 10% performance overhead on production workloads for private post-training and inference
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Tinfoil
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Tinfoil technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability11 records
Feature8 records
Tinfoil partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Red HatcoreCollaborating with Red Hat on open-source confidential AI infrastructure for private inference. Joint work on enhancing AI inference security with confidential computing for private data inference with proprietary LLMs.
- MetacoreFeatured in a Llama case study as the only multi-GPU infrastructure offering production-ready, verifiably private AI. Tinfoil is part of Meta Llama startup programs.
- Trail of BitscoreSecurity audit and webinar collaboration on TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) vulnerabilities and confidential computing best practices. Partnership strengthens security posture and transparency.
- NVIDIAcorePart of NVIDIA Inception program for startups. Leveraging NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell GPUs with confidential computing capabilities for multi-GPU private AI workloads.
- MITminorPart of MIT Startup Exchange. Featured at MIT AI Conference 2025 as one of 10 MIT AI startups to watch.
- Intel LiftoffminorParticipant in Intel Liftoff program for startups working on confidential computing solutions.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Tinfoil competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Azure Confidential Computing (Microsoft): Microsoft's confidential computing platform offering AMD SEV-SNP and Intel TDX VMs. Directly competes with Tinfoil's infrastructure layer but as part of a much broader Azure portfolio; lacks Tinfoil's specialized multi-GPU confidential AI focus and OpenAI-compatible developer experience.
- AWS Nitro Enclaves: Amazon's TEE-based enclave service for EC2 workloads. Provides the underlying isolation primitive Tinfoil builds on, but AWS does not offer a multi-GPU confidential AI inference product with the developer ergonomics Tinfoil provides.
- Google Cloud Confidential VMs: Google's AMD SEV-SNP confidential VM offering for GCP workloads. Part of a broad cloud portfolio; lacks Tinfoil's specialized multi-GPU confidential AI inference product and developer-friendly OpenAI-compatible interface.
- NVIDIA NeMo / DGX Cloud: NVIDIA's full-stack AI platform and managed cloud for training and inference using Hopper/Blackwell GPUs. Strategic partner to Tinfoil via Inception but also a potential vertical integrator — if NVIDIA ships native confidential multi-GPU inference, it directly competes with Tinfoil's core offering.
Direct peers
- Phala Network: Decentralized confidential computing platform using TEEs for private AI inference and smart contract execution. Closest direct competitor to Tinfoil in the TEE-based private AI inference category, though Phala leans decentralized while Tinfoil offers a managed, OpenAI-compatible API.
- Fortanix: Enterprise confidential computing platform offering Runtime Encryption and Confidential AI services built on Intel SGX/TDX. Targets the same verifiable-privacy-for-AI use case as Tinfoil but skews to large enterprise sales cycles with heavier deployment model.
- Anjuna Security: Confidential computing platform that creates hardware-isolated enclaves across AMD SEV, Intel SGX, and NVIDIA H100 GPUs. Competes with Tinfoil's core enclave abstraction layer, particularly for enterprises deploying sensitive workloads in public clouds.
- Edgeless Systems: Confidential computing platform built on Confidential Containers (CoCo) and Constellation for Kubernetes-native TEE workloads. Directly comparable to Tinfoil Containers but with a more DevOps/Kubernetes orientation versus Tinfoil's OpenAI-compatible developer API focus.
Emerging players
- Oasis Network: Layer-1 blockchain with confidential computing via TEEs (Intel SGX-based runtime). Comparable confidential compute positioning for AI workloads but with a different architectural approach (on-chain vs cloud-hosted) and weaker enterprise go-to-market than Tinfoil.
- Together AI: Open-source-focused AI inference cloud offering privacy features but not built on TEEs. Comparable target market (developers wanting open-source LLM inference) but lacks the hardware-attested privacy guarantee that differentiates Tinfoil.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Tinfoil social profiles
Digital presenceTinfoil compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Tinfoil financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Tinfoil leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Tinfoil funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors4 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Tinfoil M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Tinfoil
What does Tinfoil do?
Tinfoil provides verifiably private AI infrastructure by running AI inference workloads inside hardware-isolated confidential computing enclaves (AMD SEV-SNP, Intel TDX, NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell GPUs). The company offers Private Chat for individual consumers, an OpenAI-compatible Private Inference API for developers, and Tinfoil Containers for deploying custom Docker workloads in secure enclaves with cryptographic remote attestation verified client-side on every connection.
Is Tinfoil a public or private company?
Tinfoil is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Tinfoil founded?
Tinfoil was founded in 2024. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Tinfoil based?
Tinfoil is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Tinfoil make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Private Chat Subscription is the primary driver. The others are private Inference API, tinfoil Containers and enterprise GPU Access.
Who are Tinfoil's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Azure Confidential Computing (Microsoft), AWS Nitro Enclaves, Google Cloud Confidential VMs and NVIDIA NeMo / DGX Cloud. Direct peers are Phala Network, Fortanix, Anjuna Security and Edgeless Systems. Emerging players are Oasis Network and Together AI.
Does Tinfoil have an API?
Yes. Tinfoil provides an OpenAI-compatible REST API for private AI inference. The API includes: (1) Inference endpoints at https://inference.tinfoil.sh/v1 for chat completions, embeddings, audio transcription, and document processing; (2) Admin API at https://api.tinfoil.sh for programmatic organization management including API key management, billing/usage statistics, and container lifecycle operations. Admin API uses Bearer token authentication with keys prefixed 'admin_'. All models are accessible through a unified model router that automatically routes requests to appropriate model enclaves. In October 2025, Tinfoil introduced the Encrypted HTTP Body Protocol (EHBP) for end-to-end encryption of request/response payloads using attested encryption keys. Developer documentation is at docs.tinfoil.sh.
What industry is Tinfoil in?
Tinfoil's product category is Confidential AI Infrastructure. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAAKAI, Confidential AI & Privacy-Preserving ML (federated learning, MPC, HE, TEEs), with a secondary code of HDAAAMAD, Privacy-Preserving ML & Data Protection (e.g., federated learning, differential privacy).