SAN JOSE – Dec. 11, 2024 – Ayar Labs, an optical interconnect company for large-scale AI workloads, today announced it has secured $155 million in financing led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital. This brings the company’s total funding to $370 million and raises the company’s valuation to above $1 billion.
The strength of the round and caliber of investors, including participation from AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, and NVIDIA, marks another key milestone as Ayar Labs 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 has developed 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 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.
“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,” 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.”
“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,” said 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.”
This funding allows the company to scale its breakthrough optical I/O technology, 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. A list of open roles with the company is available here.
Additional Investor Statements
“Intel Capital has long recognized the importance of pioneering new interconnect technologies to improve compute efficiency and performance,” said 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.”
“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,” said 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.”
“3M is excited to invest in Ayar Labs and our opportunities to collaborate,” said Mark Copman, senior vice president, 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.”
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