Ayar Labs는 AI 클러스터 네트워킹을 위한 코패키징 광학(CPO) 상호연결 기술을 확대하기 위해 6억 5천만 달러 펀딩 라운드를 완료했다.

Copper interconnects are becoming an increasingly significant bottleneck as AI infrastructure scales from individual accelerators and servers to rack-scale and multi-rack systems. To accelerate its co-packaged optics technology toward high-volume manufacturing, Ayar Labs is raising an additional $150 million—bringing its total 2026 funding to $650 million.

The company will deploy the capital toward product development and validation, expansion of its manufacturing ecosystem, and additional engineering capacity. Strategic investor Wiwynn, a cloud infrastructure and data center provider, made its investment earlier this year, joining existing backers including Alchip, AMD, Intel, MediaTek and NVIDIA.

Co-packaged optics, or CPO, moves high-bandwidth optical connectivity closer to processors, addressing the power consumption and physical constraints that emerge when electrical connections link increasingly large clusters of computing hardware. "Copper interconnect is becoming the limiting factor for AI scale-up," said Ayar Labs CEO and co-founder Mark Wade, noting that the fresh funding will allow the company to accelerate manufacturing readiness while expanding engagement across the semiconductor foundry and packaging ecosystem.

The challenge intensifies as AI systems evolve beyond single accelerators into architectures spanning multiple racks. Traditional electrical I/O demands escalating power while facing inherent physical limits as data rates and connection distances increase. Ayar Labs' technology replaces portions of these electrical connections with optical links that deliver higher bandwidth at lower power consumption—enabling data center operators and AI infrastructure developers to connect more computing resources without allowing interconnect power and complexity to become the primary constraint on system expansion.

Wiwynn's participation links Ayar Labs more closely with the cloud data center ecosystem as CPO approaches commercial deployment. "Co-packaged optics is a foundational technology for the next generation of AI and cloud data centers," said Wiwynn President and CEO William Lin. "The companies see opportunities to develop architectures that reduce the power and complexity associated with copper interconnects while supporting rack-scale deployments at hyperscale AI data centers."

A significant portion of Ayar Labs' expansion now focuses on manufacturing readiness rather than demonstrating the underlying optical architecture. The company is deepening integration with semiconductor manufacturing and engineering partners as it transitions toward higher production volumes and supports customer programs.

This effort includes a new design center in Bengaluru, India, complementing existing engineering teams in the United States and Hsinchu, Taiwan. The Bengaluru operation will develop end-to-end engineering capabilities spanning silicon product development, overseen by Sankara Venkateswaran, Vice President of Silicon Engineering, who joined the company earlier this year. Arun Balachandar, Senior Director of Engineering, will serve as the Bengaluru site lead.

"Our new Bengaluru Design Center supports our transition from technology development to commercialization and production," Venkateswaran said. "Expanding engineering capacity will allow us to manage multiple development programs and work more closely with customers and semiconductor ecosystem partners in the region."

Ayar Labs is actively hiring across San Jose, Hsinchu and Bengaluru to build the engineering and manufacturing capacity necessary for commercialization. Founded in 2015, the company has developed optical engines for integration into advanced semiconductor packages used in AI computing systems, with an investor base spanning venture firms and semiconductor industry participants.

The $650 million in 2026 primary funding arrives as AI infrastructure developers increasingly prioritize networking and interconnect performance alongside computing capacity. Ayar Labs' next phase centers on converting co-packaged optics from a developing semiconductor technology into manufacturing-ready infrastructure capable of supporting large-scale AI deployments beyond individual racks.