Pat Gelsinger-backed startup PicoJool raises $27.5M to boost bandwidth for AI clusters

PicoJool, a startup led by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, has raised $27.5 million in early-stage funding to tackle the bandwidth demands of artificial intelligence data centers. The Series A round was led by Socratic Partners and included Hudson River Trading as a participant, bringing the company's total funding to $39.5 million.

The startup is focused on developing Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) technology, which uses light signals to transmit data through optical cables instead of traditional wire. This allows for faster data center communications and greatly improves the performance and energy efficiency of large AI clusters. With data centers now housing massive clusters of AI processors that require constant data transmission, traditional copper wire interconnects are struggling to keep up with the increasing bandwidth demands and high energy consumption.

PicoJool's CEO, Al Yuen, believes his company's high-speed 100G and 200G VCSEL products, along with low-power MicroVCSEL configurations, can alleviate this bottleneck. The MicroVCSEL platform, based on a massively parallel architecture, enables connectivity of up to 3.2 terabits per second. PicoJool plans to use the new funding to expand its teams, qualify products with customers, and accelerate research and development efforts.

The company is also working with chip foundries to prepare its 200G VCSEL for mass production. Gelsinger sees PicoJool as a viable solution to the AI data center bandwidth bottleneck, stating that the network is becoming a defining constraint on AI performance.