Salience Labs, a photonic firm, has secured $125 million (ÂŁ94 m) to develop connectivity infrastructure for AI data centres. Established in 2021, it draws on ten years of research conducted at the University of Oxford and at the University of MĂĽnster in Germany, and future global expansion plans.
Its innovative developments in photonic switching technology enable high-speed, ultra-low latency networking fabrics that remove infrastructure bottlenecks for AI workloads. The Series B funding round was led by Bullhound Capital, with principal Callum Stewart joining the board of directors.
AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, SBI Group, Hudson River Trading, and British Business Bank joined the round, alongside continued support from existing shareholders including Applied Ventures LLC, Oxford Science Enterprises, Cambridge Innovation Capital, and Silicon Catalyst Ventures.
Salience Labs will accelerate the deployment of its optical circuit switching technology, scale its volume manufacturing operations, and expand its US presence in Silicon Valley. Vaysh Kewada, CEO and co-founder of Salience Labs, said, “OCS will play a critical role in AI data centre networking.”
The all-optical switch architecture is purpose-built to be deployed at scale to connect thousands of GPUs across multiple racks for optimal scale-up network performance. Callum Stewart said, “The investor base and customer relationships Salience Labs has developed really speak to the capability of the leadership.”
Patrick Rundell, director of AMD Ventures, added, “AI infrastructure is increasingly being designed at rack scale, where networking has a direct impact on system performance, efficiency, and economics.” Srini Ananth, managing director at Intel Capital, said, “Photonics is quickly becoming essential to scaling AI infrastructure, and optical circuit switching can unlock significant gains in performance and efficiency.”
The funding round and expansion plans are a significant milestone for Salience Labs, and they will enable the company to further develop and deploy its innovative technology. With the support of its investors and partners, Salience Labs is well-positioned to make a major impact in the AI data centre market. The company’s technology has the potential to transform the way data centres are designed and operated, and its expansion plans will help to bring this technology to a wider audience.
