Salience Labs Raises $125M Series B Led by Bullhound Capital to Scale Optical Switching for AI Data Centers

According to SiliconANGLE, Salience Labs, a developer of specialized all-optical circuit switching technology for AI data centers, has raised $125 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Bullhound Capital, with significant strategic participation from Intel Capital and AMD Ventures. Other new investors included SBI Group, Hudson River Trading, and the British Business Bank.

The company aims to address the growing bottleneck in AI computing clusters caused by traditional electronic networking fabrics. Co-founder and CEO Vaysh Kewada explained that legacy systems rely on repeated optical-to-electrical-to-optical signal conversions, which struggle to keep up with the massive throughput demands of tens of thousands of GPUs. Salience Labs' solution uses fully integrated silicon photonics-based network switches to route data directly on-chip via optical connections, eliminating electrical signals within the switch fabric. This approach promises significantly lower latency and reduced power consumption, enabling companies to scale their GPU clusters to hundreds of thousands of chips.

The newly raised capital will be directed toward volume manufacturing, geographic market expansion, and the research and development of higher-density switches. The company recently demonstrated the world's first 64-port all-optical photonic switch at the ECOC 2026 conference, validating its technology. Market forecasts cited in the report suggest the optical circuit switching market could grow to over $8 billion by the end of the decade.