Ayar Labs, a company developing interconnect based on silicon photonics, announced a Series D funding round, during which it raised $155 million. At the same time, the startup’s market value is estimated to have reached $1 billion.
Ayar Labs says the company has created the industry’s first optical I/O solution in a single package that is ready for commercial use. The product is optimized for combining chips for training AI models and inference. Ayar Labs’ technology involves exchanging data between chips using light rather than electrical impulses. The solution is said to maximize the computational efficiency and performance of the AI infrastructure while reducing costs and power consumption.
Image source: Ayar Labs
In May 2023, Ayar Labs announced it had raised $25 million in funding under its expanded Series C1 program. At the time, financial support was provided by Capital TEN, VentureTech Alliance, Boardman Bay Capital Management, IAG Capital Partners, NVIDIA and Tyche Partners. Investors also include Applied Ventures, GlobalFoundries, Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, Intel Capital and Lockheed Martin Ventures.
The new Series D investment round was led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital. Funds were also provided by AMD Ventures, Intel Capital and NVIDIA. Other strategic investors participating in the round included 3M Ventures and Autopilot. Thus, in total, Ayar Labs has raised $370 million to date. The funds received are expected to help the startup further develop and scale its optical interconnect technology. In addition, the company plans to expand its staff.