CScale

AI Infrastructure · Optical Networking · Semiconductors

Launch

CScale exits stealth with $145M Series C for AI optical links

Nvidia and Intel's first-ever strategic checks signal chipmakers now see laser-based interconnects as core infrastructure, not a side bet.

• CScale exited stealth announcing a $145 million Series C led by Atreides Management with Valor Equity Partners and Premji Invest as co-leads, bringing its total funding to $188 million.
• Founded in 2023 by Sanjai Kohli, who previously built GPS-chip maker SiRF Technologies, CScale is led by CEO Martin Lund, a former Cisco chip-engineering chief and Broadcom switch-business leader.
• CScale integrates lasers directly onto chips so failures don't interrupt data flow, aiming to link thousands of accelerators across dozens of racks for gigawatt-class AI data centers expected by decade's end.
• Nvidia and Intel Capital joined the round as CScale's first-ever strategic investors, and the company says it plans to ship its chips by 2028.
• Copper cables' limited reach forces chipmakers like Nvidia and AMD to pack processors tightly with elaborate liquid cooling, a constraint optical interconnects are designed to remove.
• As AI clusters scale toward gigawatt power budgets, interconnect reliability is becoming as strategically important as raw compute, turning optical links into a new battleground for infrastructure investment.