QIA joins USD 500M round for us-based semiconductor startup Ayar Labs. by WAYA Staff - Mar 4, 2026 Image Source: EE Times Website * US semiconductor startup Ayar Labs raised USD 500M to scale production capacity and accelerate deployment of its optical AI infrastructure technology. * The round included Qatar Investment Authority alongside global institutional and investors across the AI and semiconductor ecosystem. * Founded in 2015, Ayar Labs develops optical interconnect technology replacing copper connections to improve AI data center performance and efficiency. Ayar Labs. US-based Ayar Labs closed USD 500 million in a Series E funding round led by Neuberger Berman. The round also saw participation from institutional investors such as AKR Invest, Insight Partners, Sequoia Global Equities, and 1789 Capital. Additionally, from the Middle East, the round saw participation from institutional investor Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Founded in 2015 by Mark Wade, Vladimir Stojanovic, Chen Sun, Rajeev Ram, and Milos Popovic, Ayar Labs is a semiconductor startup. It focuses on developing optical interconnect technologies (co-packaged optics) that replace traditional electrical connections in chips and data centers. AI infrastructure. The company's AI scale-up CPO solution seeks to unlock AI performance and profitability. This is through replacing bandwidth-limited copper interconnects with optical connectivity. It claims that this provides the performance and efficiency gains required for next-generation AI infrastructure. Looking ahead, the company aims to scale high-volume production and test capacity to accelerate the deployment of its CPO solution. It also aims to expand global operations, including at its new Hsinchu, Taiwan, office, and strengthen ecosystem partnerships. "AI infrastructure is hitting a power wall driven by interconnect inefficiency. As bandwidth demands explode, copper becomes the bottleneck - consuming too much power and limiting AI throughput per watt and per dollar. Co-packaged optics overcomes these barriers, enabling thousands of GPUs to operate as a unified system. This funding fuels our ability to meet the demands of hyperscale AI," said Mark Wade, CEO and co-founder of Ayar Labs.

Ayar Labs, which is replacing the copper wiring in semiconductors with fiber optics, is valued at $3.8 billion in the deal.

Optical interconnect startup Ayar Labs closes $500m funding round backed by Nvidia and AMD. Latest fundraise values the company at $3.75bn March 03, 2026 Optical interconnect startup Ayar Labs has raised $500 million in a Series E funding round that saw participation from Nvidia, AMD, MediaTek, and Alchip. Led by investment firm Neuberger Berman - which will also take up a board observer role - the round brings the total raised by the company to $870m, valuing it at $3.75 billion. - Ayar Labs The new funding will be used to scale high-volume production and test capacity and expand global operations, Ayar Labs said. This includes growing its new office in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and accelerating the deployment of its co-packaged optics (CPO) solution, first unveiled in September 2025. "AI infrastructure is hitting a power wall driven by interconnect inefficiency. As bandwidth demands explode, copper becomes the bottleneck - consuming too much power and limiting AI throughput per watt and per dollar," said Mark Wade, CEO and co-founder of Ayar Labs. "Co-packaged optics overcomes these barriers, enabling thousands of GPUs to operate as a unified system. This funding fuels our ability to meet the demands of hyperscale AI." Founded in 2015, California-based Ayar Labs develops optical interconnect solutions based on open standards, optimized for AI training and inference workloads. In April 2025, the company unveiled the world's first UCIe (Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express) optical interconnect chiplet. Five months later, Ayar Labs announced it had partnered with Taiwanese ASIC company Alchip to develop scalable AI infrastructure based on CPO technology. Offering an ultra-high bandwidth, low-latency, and energy-efficient solution for AI clusters, the solution features Ayar Labs' TeraPHY optical engines co-packaged with Alchip's advanced solutions on a common substrate, bringing optical I/O directly to the AI accelerator interface. The partners are working with TSMC on the project, using the chipmaker's advanced packaging and process technology, including COUPE, TSMC-SoIC, and advanced process nodes. More in investment / M&A / financing.