Vercel Explained

Vercel Inc.
Former Name:ZEIT (2015–2020)
Type:Private
Founder:Guillermo Rauch
Area Served:Worldwide
Hq Location City:San Francisco, California
Hq Location Country:U.S.
Key People:Guillermo Rauch (CEO)
Num Employees:550 (2025)[1]

Vercel Inc. is an American cloud application company. The company created and maintains the Next.js web development framework.[2]

Vercel provides developer tools, frameworks, and cloud infrastructure to build and maintain websites.[3] It is the maker of v0[4] and AI SDK.[5] The company maintains a free open-source library for building AI-generated products.[6]

History

Vercel was founded by Guillermo Rauch in 2015 as ZEIT. Rauch had previously created the realtime event-driven communication library Socket.IO[7] and Next.js, the open source framework that Vercel optimized for their platform.[8] ZEIT was rebranded to Vercel in April 2020, although it retained the company's triangular logo.

In June 2021, Vercel raised $102 million in a Series C funding round. In 2023, Vercel released an AI web development tool called v0 that creates web applications with natural language prompts;[9] it won a 2025 Webby Award for developer tools.[10] In 2023, Vercel released a software development kit called AI SDK[11] designed to allow developers to build conversational streaming interfaces in JavaScript and TypeScript.[12] In May 2024, Vercel raised $250 million in a funding round which valued the company at $3.25 billion.[13]

In September 2025, Vercel faced backlash after CEO Guillermo Rauch met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the Gaza war to discuss artificial intelligence and its application in Israel's economy and defense.[14] [15] In response, several users stated intentions to migrate their applications off of Vercel.

Acquisitions

Vercel has acquired a number of other companies:

Architecture

Vercel's architecture is built around composable architecture, and deployments are handled through Git repositories, the Vercel CLI, or the Vercel REST API. Vercel is a member of the MACH Alliance.

Deployments through Vercel are handled through Git repositories, with support for GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket repositories. Deployments are automatically given a subdomain under the vercel.app domain, although Vercel offers support for custom domains for deployments.

Vercel's infrastructure uses Amazon Web Services.

In 2025, Vercel introduced a web application infrastructure model called Fluid that enables an instance in a local region to handle multiple requests concurrently, similar to a traditional server, while also maintaining the elasticity of serverless systems.[19]

References

Citations

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Garfinkle . Allie . January 25, 2025 . For startups, remote work versus return-to-office is a balance—and an experiment . 2025-11-08 . Fortune.
  2. News: MacManus . Richard . How Vercel Frees Frontend Developers from Backend Burden . 15 April 2025 . The New Stack . 20 July 2020.
  3. News: Lawson . Lorraine . Vercel Rolls Out More Cost-Effective Infrastructure Model . 14 April 2025 . The New Stack . 5 February 2025.
  4. News: Tong . Anna . Exclusive: Vercel completes $250 mln Series E round at $3.25 bln valuation . 15 April 2025 . Reuters . 16 May 2024.
  5. News: Vercel Introduces SDK for Building AI Apps with React and Svelte . 15 April 2025 . CMS Critic . 19 June 2023.
  6. News: MacManus . Richard . Vercel’s Next Big Thing: AI SDK and Accelerator for Devs . 15 April 2025 . The New Stack . 31 August 2023.
  7. Web site: Socket.IO JavaScript framework ready for real-time apps . June 2, 2014 . Krill . Paul . InfoWorld . October 2, 2022.
  8. News: MacManus . Richard . How Vercel Frees Frontend Developers from Backend Burden . 15 April 2025 . The New Stack . 20 July 2020.
  9. News: Tong . Anna . Exclusive: Vercel completes $250 mln Series E round at $3.25 bln valuation . 15 April 2025 . Reuters . 16 May 2024.
  10. Web site: Webby Winner, v0 from Vercel . WebbyAwards.com . 10 May 2025.
  11. News: Vercel Introduces SDK for Building AI Apps with React and Svelte . 15 April 2025 . CMS Critic . 19 June 2023.
  12. News: MacManus . Richard . Vercel’s Next Big Thing: AI SDK and Accelerator for Devs . 15 April 2025 . The New Stack . 31 August 2023.
  13. News: Tong . Anna . Exclusive: Vercel completes $250 mln Series E round at $3.25 bln valuation . 15 April 2025 . Reuters . 16 May 2024.
  14. Web site: 2025-09-30 . Netanyahu holds quiet AI talks with U.S. tech executives in New York . 2025-10-01 . ctech . en.
  15. Web site: Lyon . Jacob . 2025-09-30 . Vercel faces user exodus after CEO picture with Benjamin Netanyahu . 2025-10-12 . Protos . en-US.
  16. Web site: Occhino . Tom . 2025-01-22 . Vercel acquires Tremor to invest in open source React components . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20250319151232/https://vercel.com/blog/vercel-acquires-tremor . 2025-03-19 . 2025-03-19 . Vercel . en.
  17. Web site: Chopin . Sébastien . 2025-07-08 . NuxtLabs is joining Vercel . 2025-07-09 . NuxtLabs.
  18. Web site: 2025-07-08 . NuxtLabs joins Vercel . 2025-07-09 . Vercel.
  19. News: Lawson . Lorraine . Vercel Rolls Out More Cost-Effective Infrastructure Model . 14 April 2025 . The New Stack . 5 February 2025.

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