Ayar Labs, Latest Optical Interconnect Startup To Raise Big, Hits Unicorn Status

Ayar Labs secured a $155 million Series D funding round led by Advent International and Light Street Capital, achieving a valuation of over $1 billion. The round saw participation from strategic investors like AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, Nvidia, and others, alongside existing investors such as Applied Ventures LLC and Lockheed Martin Ventures. Ayar Labs develops optical solutions to enhance compute efficiency and performance for AI infrastructure, aiming to replace traditional electrical solutions to reduce costs and power consumption. Since its founding in 2015, Ayar has raised a total of $370 million.

The optical interconnect sector is attracting significant investment as companies aim to address AI's compute and power challenges. Lightmatter recently raised $400 million in a Series D round led by T. Rowe Price, boosting its valuation to $4.4 billion. Similarly, Xscape Photonics, a New York-based startup, raised $44 million in a Series A round led by IAG Capital Partners, with participation from Cisco Investments and Nvidia, to tackle energy and scalability issues in AI data centers.

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Ayar Labs raised $155 million in a Series D round led by Advent International and Light Street Capital, reaching a valuation of over $1 billion.
The funding round included participation from major companies like AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, Nvidia, and 3M New Ventures.
Lightmatter, another optical interconnect startup, raised $400 million in a Series D round, increasing its valuation to $4.4 billion.
Xscape Photonics raised $44 million in a Series A round to address AI data center challenges using photonics technology.

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Ayar Labs, Latest Optical Interconnect Startup To Raise Big, Hits Unicorn Status

Key takeaways:

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