UK's Salience Labs, which develops photonic chips for AI datacenter networking, has raised $125 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by Bullhound Capital, with participation from AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, and British Business Bank.
- Founded in 2021 by Vaysh Kewada, Johannes Feldmann, Professor Harish Bhaskaran and Professor Wolfram Pernice, Salience Labs is a spinout of the University of Oxford and the University of Münster developing photonic switching technology for AI datacenters.
- Its integrated optical circuit switches are designed to connect thousands of GPUs across multiple racks, improving network performance and efficiency.
- The company recently demonstrated a 64-port all-optical photonic switch at ECOC 2026 and is developing higher-capacity solutions to support the growing networking demands of AI infrastructure.
Details of the deal
- The Series B also saw participation from Hudson River Trading, SBI Investment, Applied Ventures, Oxford Science Enterprises, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Silicon Catalyst Ventures.
- With the fresh capital, Salience Labs will accelerate the deployment of its optical circuit switching technology, scale high-volume manufacturing and develop 128-port and 256-port switches.
- The company also plans to expand its presence in Silicon Valley and strengthen its manufacturing operations.
