Ayar Labs, a startup that developed the first in-package optical I/O solution to replace electrical I/O in AI training and inferencing chips, announced a $155 million Series D funding round this week. The deal was led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital, and included investments from AMD Ventures (AMD), Intel Capital (INTC), and Nvidia (NVDA). Ayar Labs is now valued at more than $1 billion.
The startup is changing the way data moves between chips with its I/O technology, which it says can "eliminate bottlenecks created by traditional copper interconnects and pluggable optics." The funding will allow Ayar Labs to scale its technology, which "allows customers 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."
"The leading GPU providers -- AMD and NVIDIA -- and semiconductor foundries -- GlobalFoundries (GFS), Intel Foundry, and TSMC (TSM) -- 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," Mark Wade, chief executive and co-founder of Ayar Labs, said in a statement. "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."