Ayar Labs raises $155 million for optical I/O
The company plans to use the funding from the latest round, which includes participation from AMD, Intel Capital, and NVIDIA, to scale its technology, which it describes as the industry’s first commercially viable optical interconnect solution backed by a robust manufacturing ecosystem
Ayar Labs, a company focusing on optical interconnect solutions for large-scale AI workloads, has announced it has secured $155 million in financing led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital to break down the AI bottleneck of data movement with its optical I/O technology. This brings the company’s total funding to $370 million and raises the company’s valuation to above $1 billion.
Ayar Labs says that the round, which includes participation from AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, and NVIDIA, marks another key milestone as the company prepares its optical solution for high-volume manufacturing strategically aligned to customer roadmaps. 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.
“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,” said Mark Wade, CEO and co-founder of Ayar Labs. “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 says it has developed the industry’s first in-package optical I/O solution to replace electrical I/O that is standards-based, commercial-ready, and optimised for AI training and inference. Optical I/O allows customers to maximise 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 revolutionising the future of AI infrastructure, and we recognise the significant growth potential of in-package optical interconnects,” said Jordan Katz, partner at Advent Global Opportunities, who will be joining Ayar Labs’ Board of Directors. “Our deep research into the interconnect market revealed that Ayar Labs is led by a world-class team, has industry-leading technology, and exciting engagements with Tier 1 customers. We believe that supporting Ayar Labs and its groundbreaking technology will offer transformative benefits to AI systems.”
Shef Osborn, partner at Light Street Capital, said: “We are committed to fuelling the growth of companies that lead technological innovation. 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. This funding demonstrates to its customers that Ayar Labs has the resources necessary to support their AI infrastructure needs.”
