Lip-Bu Tan Supports Celestial AI’s $500m Photonic Fabric Milestone

Celestial AI has recently secured a significant amount of funding, raising $250 million for its innovative Photonic Fabric optical interconnect technology platform. This latest funding round, known as Series C1, was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and included investments from BlackRock, Maverick Silicon, Tiger Global Management, and Lip-Bu Tan, among others. With this new injection of capital, the total funding for the startup now stands at an impressive $515 million.

Among the investors in this round were both new and existing backers, such as AMD Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Temasek, Xora Innovation (a subsidiary of Temasek), Porsche Automobil Holding, and The Engine Ventures. The funding will play a crucial role in enabling Celestial AI to expand its operations and further develop its volume manufacturing supply chain for chiplets utilizing the cutting-edge technology.

David Lazovsky, the CEO of Celestial AI, emphasized the increasing demands placed on AI infrastructure due to the rise of complex reasoning models and agentic AI. Lazovsky highlighted the necessity for scalable cluster sizes, ranging from a few AI processors in a server to thousands of processors across multiple racks, all requiring high-bandwidth, low-latency network connectivity for efficient data transfers.

The photonic fabric developed by Celestial AI is positioned as the ideal solution to meet these evolving demands. Lazovsky asserts that this technology platform stands out for its ability to deliver higher bandwidth, energy efficiency, and lower latency, making it a crucial component for the next generation of AI infrastructure.

Furthermore, Celestial AI recently acquired Rockley Photonics patents for $20 million, expanding its offerings to include a comprehensive suite of products encompassing connectivity, switching, and packaging solutions. These products form the foundation for optical scale-up networks tailored for accelerated computing. Notably, the technology is fully compatible with industry-standard manufacturing and 2.5D packaging processes, with Celestial AI already engaged with various hyperscalers, AI processor manufacturers, custom silicon providers, and packaging partners.