Ayar Labs, which is developing a way to link AI chips directly with optical connections, raised $150M, an extension of its $500M Series E in March 2026 (Stephen Nellis/Reuters)

Ayar Labs, a Silicon Valley startup, has raised an additional $150 million, extending its Series E funding round to $650 million. The company is developing a way to link AI chips directly together with optical connections.

This extension follows a $500 million Series E round in March 2026, led by Neuberger Berman, with participation from Nvidia Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and MediaTek Inc. According to SiliconANGLE, Ayar Labs has now raised just over a billion dollars in outside funding.

Ayar Labs' optical interconnect technology enables AI chips to be linked to fiber optical cables, speeding up data transmission in AI clusters. The company aims to replace copper interconnects in AI data centers, which it says are limited by distance, power, and temperature.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, SiliconANGLE — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.