DigitalOcean says it is now an OpenRouter AI model provider (runtimewire.com)

DigitalOcean has announced its entry into the AI model distribution space as a provider on OpenRouter, now offering DeepSeek V3.2, Kimi K2.6, and DeepSeek V4 Flash models. This shift reflects a strategic move for the company, which is primarily recognized for its cloud services like droplets and managed databases, into the increasingly competitive realm of AI inference—where applications interact with hosted models and incur usage costs. This development is significant for the AI/ML community as it highlights the growing trend among cloud service providers to diversify their offerings by incorporating AI capabilities. By providing access to various models, DigitalOcean positions itself to capture a share of the lucrative AI inference market, which is essential for enabling real-time decision-making and functionality in applications. This move not only broadens the availability of AI tools for developers but also underscores the importance of infrastructure in supporting the deployment and scalability of machine learning models.