Pulumi Unveils Neo: Bringing AI Revolution to Cloud Infrastructure
In a bold strategic move, Seattle-based startup Pulumi has launched Neo, an innovative AI agent designed to transform how enterprises manage cloud infrastructure. CEO Joe Duffy committed nearly a third of his 130-person team to develop this groundbreaking technology, which promises to automate complex infrastructure tasks that traditionally consume weeks of engineering time. Neo represents Pulumi’s ambitious vision to extend the AI coding revolution beyond application development into the critical but often overlooked realm of cloud infrastructure management.
Neo builds upon Pulumi’s established infrastructure-as-code (IaC) foundation, leveraging large language models—primarily Claude—combined with enterprise-grade security guardrails. The system seamlessly integrates with popular AI development tools including Devin, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code through Pulumi’s Model Context Protocol server. What makes Neo particularly versatile is its configurable autonomy: organizations can adjust its level of independence from requiring human approval for each step to executing fully automated workflows. This flexibility allows companies to gradually build trust in the system while maintaining appropriate oversight for sensitive infrastructure changes.
The timing of Neo’s launch speaks to a growing crisis in platform engineering. While AI has dramatically accelerated application development, allowing developers to create apps and websites in seconds, backend infrastructure teams are increasingly overwhelmed by the resulting demands. “While developer teams race to adopt AI, platform teams are drowning in managing the infrastructure demands, and a volume/velocity crisis develops,” explains Sheila Gulati, managing director at Tola Capital and Pulumi investor. This bottleneck is particularly acute because infrastructure provisioning remains largely manual due to internal compliance requirements. As companies continue investing in AI capabilities, the gap between development velocity and infrastructure capacity threatens to become a critical business constraint.
Customer response to Neo has been remarkably positive, with Duffy describing the reception as “mind-blowing.” Early adopters are using the AI agent for transformative tasks like remediating thousands of compliance violations simultaneously or upgrading dozens of Kubernetes clusters with zero downtime—achievements that would be impractical with traditional methods. According to Pulumi, beta users have reported delivering infrastructure ten times faster than before, deploying solutions 75% faster, and reducing policy violations by an impressive 90%. “Neo is going to help them keep up and spend more time on strategic tasks, rather than firefighting all the time,” Duffy explains, highlighting how the technology frees platform engineers from constant operational emergencies to focus on value-adding work.
Developed in partnership with AWS using their new Bedrock Agent Core service, Neo enters a competitive landscape that Duffy expects will soon attract major players. However, he remains confident that Pulumi’s established infrastructure-as-code foundation provides a significant competitive advantage. This confidence is well-founded: since its founding in 2017, Pulumi has built an impressive customer base of more than 3,700 organizations, including tech giants like Nvidia and industrial leaders such as BMW. The company’s core IaC tool now exceeds one million downloads weekly, demonstrating strong product-market fit. Financially, Pulumi has secured $99 million in funding, including a substantial $41 million round in 2023, and currently generates revenue in the tens of millions of dollars.
Pulumi’s growth extends beyond its product portfolio. The company recently relocated to new headquarters in Two Union Square in downtown Seattle and established a European subsidiary to support its global expansion. This physical and geographical growth parallels the company’s technological ambitions with Neo, which represents not just a new product but a fundamental shift in how enterprises might approach cloud infrastructure management. By applying AI to automate complex infrastructure tasks at scale, Pulumi is positioning itself at the forefront of what could be the next major transformation in enterprise technology: bringing the same AI-driven efficiency gains seen in application development to the critical foundation of cloud infrastructure that powers modern digital businesses.
