QIA Joins $500M American Semiconductor Firm Ayar Labs Funding Round

US-based semiconductor startup Ayar Labs has raised $500 million in a Series E funding round to scale its optical interconnect technology designed to address bandwidth limitations in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The round was led by Neuberger Berman and included institutional investors ARK Invest, Insight Partners, Sequoia Global Equities, and 1789 Capital. Qatar Investment Authority participated from the Middle East. Strategic investors Alchip Technologies and MediaTek also joined the round alongside existing backers Advent Global Opportunities, Boardman Bay Capital Management, IAG Capital Partners, Light Street Capital, Playground Global, AMD Ventures, and NVIDIA.

Founded in 2015 by Mark Wade, Vladimir Stojanovic, Chen Sun, Rajeev Ram, and Milos Popovic, Ayar Labs develops optical interconnect technologies known as co-packaged optics. The system is designed to replace copper connections in chips and data centres, which the company says have become a bottleneck as AI systems demand greater bandwidth and computing power.

According to Ayar Labs, its AI scale-up co-packaged optics solution is designed to improve performance and efficiency for next-generation AI infrastructure by enabling thousands of GPUs to function together within unified systems.

The company said the new funding will support scaling high-volume production and testing capacity, accelerating deployment of its co-packaged optics technology, expanding global operations including a new office in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and strengthening partnerships across the semiconductor ecosystem.