Ayar Labs has raised $500 million in a Series E funding round, valuing the AI semiconductor startup at $3.75 billion. The investment signals growing interest in technologies supporting AI infrastructure beyond major chipmakers.
The round was led by Neuberger Berman with new investors including ARK Invest and the Qatar Investment Authority. Strategic investors like AMD and Nvidia also participated, bringing total funding to $870 million.
Ayar Labs develops co-packaged optics technology that uses light instead of electrical signals to move data between AI processors and memory. This approach addresses bandwidth and power constraints as AI systems scale across thousands of chips.
The new capital will expand production capacity, grow global operations, and accelerate deployment of its optical interconnect products, including a new office in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
The company has also joined Nvidia's NVLink Fusion ecosystem, enabling its optical technology to work with Nvidia-based rack-scale systems. This integration aims to help data centers increase bandwidth while reducing power consumption.
The funding highlights investor focus on networking, memory, and connectivity technologies essential for AI infrastructure growth.