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Ayar Labs: Optical Interconnect Company Raises $155 Million (Series D)

By Amit Chowdhry

Ayar Labs: Optical Interconnect Company Raises $155 Million (Series D)

Ayar Labs, a leader in optical interconnect solutions for large-scale AI workloads, announced it has raised $155 million in financing led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital to address the AI bottleneck of data movement with its optical I/O technology. This brings the company's total funding to $370 million and raises its valuation to above $1 billion.

The round included participation from AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, and NVIDIA, and it marks another key milestone as Ayar Labs prepares its optical solution for high-volume manufacturing strategically aligned to customer roadmaps. And other new strategic and financial investors participating in the round include 3M Ventures and Autopilot. They join existing investors like Applied Ventures, Axial Partners, Boardman Bay Capital Management, GlobalFoundries, IAG Capital Partners, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Playground Global, and VentureTech Alliance.

Ayar Labs has created the industry's first in-package optical I/O solution to replace electrical I/O, which is standards-based, commercial-ready, and optimized for AI training and inference. And optical I/O enables customers to maximize their AI infrastructure's computing efficiency and performance while reducing costs and power consumption to improve profitability metrics for AI applications dramatically.

This funding enables the company to scale its breakthrough optical I/O technology, the industry's first commercially viable optical interconnect solution backed by a solid manufacturing ecosystem.

KEY QUOTES:

"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. 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."

"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. 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."

"We are committed to fueling 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."

"Intel Capital has long recognized the importance of pioneering new interconnect technologies to improve compute efficiency and performance. 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."

"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. 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."

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