Ayar Labs
Category: AI Infrastructure
Ayar Labs develops silicon photonics-based co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions that replace electrical interconnects with high-speed, light-based links between chips to eliminate AI data bottlenecks. Ayar Labs was founded in 2015. The company is led by Mark Wade. Based in San Jose, California, USA. Team size: 101-500. Total funding raised: $870M. Latest round: Series E. Key investors include Neuberger Berman, NVIDIA, AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, Advent Global Opportunities, Light Street Capital, ARK Invest, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), 1789 Capital, MediaTek, Alchip Technologies, Insight Partners.
- Founded
- 2015
- Headquarters
- San Jose, California, USA
- Team size
- 101-500
- Total funding
- $870M
Value proposition
Replaces copper electrical interconnects with optical I/O chiplets to deliver 1000x improvement in interconnect bandwidth density at 10x lower power, solving the memory wall bottleneck that limits AI compute scaling.
Products and solutions
TeraPHY™ optical I/O chiplets (8 Tbps bandwidth per chiplet, 10ns latency, UCIe-compliant), SuperNova™ multi-wavelength external light source (up to 64 wavelengths), Co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions for AI scale-up connecting thousands of GPUs across racks
Unique value
Industry's first in-package optical I/O solution using standard silicon processing — TeraPHY chiplets manufactured on GlobalFoundries' GF Fotonix platform, enabling 8 Tbps per chiplet at 10x lower power than electrical interconnects, with ability to connect 10,000+ GPUs as a unified system.
Target customer
Hyperscale cloud providers, AI data center operators, GPU/accelerator manufacturers, semiconductor companies building AI infrastructure
Industries served
AI Infrastructure, High-Performance Computing (HPC), Cloud Computing, Data Centers, Telecommunications, Aerospace & Defense
Technology advantage
Patented silicon photonics technology built on standard CMOS manufacturing processes (GlobalFoundries GF Fotonix); TeraPHY chiplets support UCIe standard for seamless integration; SuperNova multi-wavelength light source; Deep ecosystem partnerships with GlobalFoundries, TSMC, Alchip, GUC; Strategic investments from NVIDIA, AMD, Intel Capital; First volume commercial shipments achieved in 2022
How they differentiate
Unlike pluggable optics (Coherent, Lumentum) which consume high power at longer reaches, Ayar's TeraPHY chiplets are integrated directly into the GPU/accelerator package, enabling 8 Tbps bandwidth at 10x lower power with nanosecond latency. Competes with Lightmatter (photonic interposer approach) and Celestial AI (memory fabrics, now acquired by Marvell). Ayar's key differentiation is its UCIe-compliant optical chiplet architecture manufactured on standard silicon processes at GlobalFoundries.
Main competitors
Lightmatter (photonic computing, raised $400M Series D at $4.4B valuation), Celestial AI (optical interconnects, acquired by Marvell for ~$3.25B in Feb 2026), Coherent (photonics, received $2B from NVIDIA), Lumentum (photonics, received $2B from NVIDIA)
Key partnerships
GlobalFoundries (manufacturing on GF Fotonix platform), Alchip Technologies (CPO reference designs with TSMC advanced packaging), GUC/Global Unichip Corp (CPO ASIC design services), NVIDIA (NVLink Fusion ecosystem), Lumentum (supply agreement), MACOM (supply agreement), Intel (DARPA collaboration), Wiwynn (rack-scale AI systems), MediaTek (strategic investor/partner)
Major milestones
2015: Company founded as MIT/Berkeley/CU Boulder DARPA POEM project spinout, 2015: Nature paper demonstrating light-enabled microprocessor, 2017: First prototype (45nm optical chip), 2021: Demonstrated industry's first terabit optical link for CPO, 2022: $130M Series C led by Boardman Bay, first volume commercial shipments, 2023: $25M Series C expansion, joined NVIDIA NVLink Fusion ecosystem, 2024: $155M Series D at $1B+ valuation (unicorn), 2026: $500M Series E at $3.75B valuation, named to Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies of 2026
Growth metrics
Total funding: $870M; Valuation: $3.75B (as of March 2026); Employees: ~220-233 (as of May 2026); First volume commercial shipments achieved in 2022; Expanding to Hsinchu, Taiwan office
Market positioning
Leader in co-packaged optics (CPO) for AI scale-up infrastructure; one of the most well-funded silicon photonics startups with $870M total raised; positioned as the key enabler for breaking the AI memory wall by replacing copper interconnects with optical I/O at the chip level
Geographic focus
Global (HQ in San Jose, CA; office in Hsinchu, Taiwan; operations across 5 continents)
Patents and IP
Patented silicon photonics IP for optical I/O chiplets; multi-wavelength light source technology; co-packaged optics architecture
About Mark Wade
PhD in silicon photonics from University of Colorado Boulder; Postdoc at MIT; Co-authored breakthrough 2015 Nature paper on light-enabled microprocessor as graduate researcher; Former CTO and SVP of Engineering at Ayar Labs before becoming CEO
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Official website: https://ayarlabs.com