Salience Labs Raises $125M Series B to Scale Optical Switching for AI Data Centres

Oxford, UK-based Salience Labs develops photonic chips and optical circuit switching technology that helps connect GPUs inside AI data centres. By moving data between processors through optical systems, the company is addressing a key infrastructure challenge as AI workloads demand faster, more efficient networking.

The startup has raised $125 million in Series B funding led by Bullhound Capital. AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, SBI Group, Hudson River Trading, British Business Bank, Applied Ventures, Oxford Science Enterprises, Cambridge Innovation Capital, and Silicon Catalyst Ventures also participated. Salience Labs was founded by Vaysh Kewada and Johannes Feldmann.

The round will fund deployment of its optical switching technology, expansion of high-volume manufacturing, and development of next-generation optical switches. Salience Labs has demonstrated a 64-port all-optical photonic switch and is developing 128-port and 256-port versions for larger-scale data centre connectivity.

The company is working with Keysight Technologies and Tower Semiconductor to scale manufacturing. It will also grow its engineering team, expand into additional geographic markets, and establish a second West Coast location as it takes the products into wider deployment.

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