Ayar Labs Secures $155 Million in Financing

<p><strong>SAN JOSE<&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi; Ayar Labs&comma; a provider of optical interconnect solutions for large-scale AI workloads&comma; today announced it has secured &dollar;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&sol;O technology&period; This brings the company’s total funding to &dollar;370 million and raises the company’s valuation to above &dollar;1 billion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The strength of the round and caliber of investors&comma; including participation from AMD Ventures&comma; Intel Capital&comma; and NVIDIA&comma; marks another key milestone as Ayar Labs prepares its optical solution for high volume manufacturing strategically aligned to customer roadmaps&period; Other new strategic and financial investors participating in the round include 3M Ventures and Autopilot&period; They join existing investors such as Applied Ventures LLC&comma; Axial Partners&comma; Boardman Bay Capital Management&comma; GlobalFoundries&comma; IAG Capital Partners&comma; Lockheed Martin Ventures&comma; Playground Global&comma; and VentureTech Alliance&period; <span data-olk-copy-source&equals;"MessageBody">NTT DOCOMO Ventures has also invested in Ayar Labs&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The leading GPU providers – AMD and NVIDIA – and semiconductor foundries – GlobalFoundries&comma; Intel Foundry&comma; and TSMC – combined with the backing of Advent&comma; Light Street&comma; and our other investors underscores the potential of our optical I&sol;O technology to redefine the future of AI infrastructure&comma;” said Mark Wade&comma; CEO and co-founder of Ayar Labs&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;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&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>AI infrastructure is projected to see <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cts&period;businesswire&period;com&sol;ct&sol;CT&quest;id&equals;smartlink&amp&semi;url&equals;https&percnt;3A&percnt;2F&percnt;2Fwww&period;goldmansachs&period;com&percnt;2Finsights&percnt;2Farticles&percnt;2Fwill-the-1-trillion-of-generative-ai-investment-pay-off&amp&semi;esheet&equals;54165290&amp&semi;newsitemid&equals;20241211964729&amp&semi;lan&equals;en-US&amp&semi;anchor&equals;more&plus;than&plus;&percnt;241&plus;trillion&plus;in&plus;investments&amp&semi;index&equals;2&amp&semi;md5&equals;1357c2fedba809bea9e650b8d1f775ab" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"nofollow noopener" shape&equals;"rect">more than &dollar;1 trillion in investments<&sol;a> over the next decade&comma; highlighting the critical need for solutions that eliminate bottlenecks created by traditional copper interconnects and pluggable optics&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ayar Labs has developed the industry’s first in-package optical I&sol;O solution to replace electrical I&sol;O that is standards-based&comma; commercial-ready&comma; and optimized for AI training and inference&period; Optical I&sol;O allows customers to maximize the compute efficiency and performance of their AI infrastructure&comma; while reducing costs and power consumption&comma; to dramatically improve profitability metrics for AI applications&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We believe optical I&sol;O is on the cusp of revolutionizing the future of AI infrastructure&comma; and we recognize the significant growth potential of in-package optical interconnects&comma;” said Jordan Katz&comma; partner at Advent Global Opportunities&comma; who will be joining Ayar Labs’ Board of Directors&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our deep research into the interconnect market revealed that Ayar Labs is led by a world-class team&comma; has industry-leading technology&comma; and exciting engagements with Tier 1 customers&period; We believe that supporting Ayar Labs and its groundbreaking technology will offer transformative benefits to AI systems&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are committed to fueling the growth of companies that lead technological innovation&period; With this significant capital infusion&comma; Ayar Labs is well-positioned to support its growing customer base and meet the explosive demand for optical I&sol;O solutions&comma;” said Shef Osborn&comma; partner at Light Street Capital&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This funding demonstrates to its customers that Ayar Labs has the resources necessary to support their AI infrastructure needs&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;