News: Optoelectronics
12 December 2024
Ayar Labs raises $155m in Series D funding round led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital
Silicon photonics-based chip-to-chip optical connectivity firm Ayar Labs of San Jose, CA, USA has secured $155m in a Series D funding round led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital. Other new strategic and financial investors participating in the round include 3M Ventures and Autopilot. They join existing investors such as Applied Ventures LLC, Axial Partners, Boardman Bay Capital Management, GlobalFoundries, IAG Capital Partners, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Playground Global, and VentureTech Alliance. This brings total funding to $370m and raises the company’s valuation to above $1bn.
With the new funds, the firm aims to apply its optical I/O technology to breaking down the AI bottleneck of data movement, as it prepares its optical solution for high-volume manufacturing strategically aligned to customer roadmaps.
“The leading GPU providers – AMD and NVIDIA – and semiconductor foundries – GlobalFoundries, Intel Foundry, and TSMC – combined with the backing of Advent, Light Street, and our other investors underscores the potential of our optical I/O technology to redefine the future of AI infrastructure,” says CEO & co-founder Mark Wade. “We are incredibly fortunate to have the backing of Light Street’s deep expertise in technology-specific investments as well as Advent’s robust private and growth equity background in this funding round.”
AI infrastructure is projected to see more than $1 trillion in investments over the next decade, highlighting the critical need for solutions that eliminate bottlenecks created by traditional copper interconnects and pluggable optics.
Ayar Labs has developed what is claimed to be the industry’s first in-package optical I/O solution to replace electrical I/O that is standards-based, commercial-ready and optimized for AI training and inference. Optical I/O allows users to maximize the compute efficiency and performance of their AI infrastructure, while reducing costs and power consumption, to dramatically improve profitability metrics for AI applications.
“We believe optical I/O is on the cusp of revolutionizing the future of AI infrastructure, and we recognize the significant growth potential of in-package optical interconnects,” comments Jordan Katz, partner at Advent Global Opportunities, who is joining Ayar Labs’ board of directors.
“With this significant capital infusion, Ayar Labs is well positioned to support its growing customer base and meet the explosive demand for optical I/O solutions,” believes Shef Osborn, partner at Light Street Capital. “This funding demonstrates to its customers that Ayar Labs has the resources necessary to support their AI infrastructure needs.”
The funding should allow the firm to scale its optical I/O technology, which is claimed to be the industry’s first commercially viable optical interconnect solution backed by a robust manufacturing ecosystem. Named one of America’s Best Startup Employers by Forbes earlier this year, Ayar Labs plans to increase hiring next year.
“Intel Capital has long recognized the importance of pioneering new interconnect technologies to improve compute efficiency and performance,” says Srini Ananth, managing director at Intel Capital. “We have been dedicated to supporting Ayar Labs’ continued growth and are proud to reaffirm our commitment to its optical I/O solutions that aim to disrupt the AI industry,” he adds.
“As an early investor and collaborator, Applied Ventures looks forward to continue working with Ayar Labs to advance energy-efficient computing using photonics-based optical interconnects,” says Anand Kamannavar, global head of Applied Ventures and board observer of Ayar Labs. “Ayar Labs plays a key role in helping solve the critical challenge of moving vast amounts of data efficiently across chips and data-center systems,” he adds.
“3M is excited to invest in Ayar Labs and our opportunities to collaborate,” said Mark Copman, senior VP, 3M New Growth Ventures. “This partnership reinforces 3M’s commitment to advancing data-center and next-gen solutions for AI infrastructure using 3M’s leading material science expertise.”
Ayar Labs showcasing future of AI infrastructure with Fujitsu, Intel Foundry, Corning and Altera
Ayar Labs adds $25m in expansion of $130m Series C funding round
