Ayar Labs

Optical interconnects (co-packaged optics) for large-scale AI compute fabrics and data centers

Semiconductors 📍 Santa Clara, CA Founded 2015

Current Valuation

$1.0B

as of 2024-Q4

UNICORN

Ayar Labs builds in-package optical interconnects — TeraPHY chiplets paired with the SuperNova multi-wavelength laser — that move data between AI accelerators via light rather than copper, removing the bandwidth and power bottlenecks that constrain large-scale AI training and inference fabrics. Spun out of MIT/Berkeley research in 2015, the company crossed the unicorn threshold in December 2024 with a $155M Series D led by Advent International and Light Street Capital, with strategic participation from AMD, Intel Capital, and NVIDIA — an unusual three-way endorsement from the biggest accelerator vendors. Total funding stands at roughly $370M.

Company Profile

CEO

Mark Wade

Founded

2015

Santa Clara, CA

Employees

~250

Total Raised

$370M

Est. Revenue

$92M (2025)

Growth

Production ramp underway with AMD, Intel, NVIDIA strategic investments backing in-package optical I/O for AI compute fabrics

Last Round

Series D — $155M (Dec 2024) · Lead: Advent International and Light Street Capital

IPO Status

private

Founders & Key People

Mark WadeChen SunAlexandra Wright-GladsteinVladimir StojanovicRajeev Ram

Investors

Advent International · Light Street Capital · AMD Ventures · Intel Capital · NVIDIA · Hewlett Packard Pathfinder · Founders Fund · Tyche Partners · Atreides Management · TI Platform

Products

TeraPHY optical I/O chiplet
SuperNova multi-wavelength laser source
In-package optical interconnect platform

Competitors

Lightmatter · Celestial AI · Coherent · Marvell · Broadcom

SemiconductorsAI InfrastructureOptical InterconnectUnicornDeep TechB2B