Netflix co-founder backs $312M round for optical inference appliance maker Olix

Olix Computing Ltd., an artificial intelligence hardware startup, has secured $312 million in funding for its optical inference appliance maker. The Series C round of investment included contributions from Arm Holding plc, Netflix Inc. co-founder Reed Hastings, and several other entities. As a result, Olix's current valuation stands at $3.3 billion, approximately three times the company's worth following its previous financing round in February.

The company's primary focus lies in developing a chip called the DX-1, which is specifically optimized for decode workloads. These decode stage operations involve transforming a large language model (LLM) prompt into a collection of mathematical values, known as a KV cache. This cache is then used to generate a prompt response. The DX-1 chip aims to store the KV cache in fast on-chip memory, specifically SRAM, which enhances energy efficiency and reduces latency.

Unlike existing decode-optimized processors such as Nvidia Corp.'s Groq 3 LPX, which rely on off-chip HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) to store KV caches, Olix's DX-1 chip avoids the need for HBM memory by keeping the cache on-chip. Instead, the chip uses a slow and wide optical interconnect to connect the processors, which transmits data as light, offering better performance than traditional copper-wired data center connections.

Moreover, Olix's DX-1 chip enables large language models with 100 billion parameters to process more than 10,000 tokens per second. Additionally, multiple X-1 racks can be linked together to run models with 10 trillion parameters. The company plans to begin shipping its chips in the first half of 2027 and intends to use its latest funding round to bolster the custom silicon platform behind the DX-1 and expedite manufacturing efforts.