NEye Systems Secures $58 Million to Advance Optical Networking Chips for AI Data Centers
NEye Systems, a startup based in Emeryville, California, has announced it has raised $58 million in venture capital to accelerate the development of its cutting-edge networking chips designed for AI-driven data centers as reported by Reuters.
The funding round was led by CapitalG, Alphabet's growth investment arm, underscoring rising interest in more efficient and flexible data center technologies.
The new investment boosts NEye’s total funding to $72.5 million, with participation from several high-profile backers including M12 (Microsoft’s venture arm), Micron Technology, and Nvidia.
Optical Chip Technology Promises Enhanced Efficiency
NEye Systems is pioneering the development of chips that utilize optical technology to transfer data between AI processors using light instead of traditional electrical signals.
This approach is gaining traction among major chipmakers and emerging startups alike for its potential to cut energy consumption in power-hungry AI data centers.
However, NEye’s ambitions go beyond energy efficiency. Reuters reports that the startup is focusing on creating optical circuit switches, specialized chips that enable data center operators to reconfigure computing connections dynamically. This flexibility allows data centers to optimize performance depending on the software and tasks being executed at any given time.
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Bringing Google’s Supercomputing Strategy to the Wider Market
Google famously developed its own proprietary version of such chips to power an AI supercomputer that outperformed Nvidia’s offerings. While Google’s in-house chips remained exclusive, NEye aims to bring similar advantages to the broader market.
Ming Wu, one of the firm's co-founders and a professor at University of California Berkeley, said, “Google is a pioneer. They led the way. Other AI companies, other hyperscaler AI data center operators, they will be looking to acquire some of this technology rather than developing it themselves."
NEye has already produced prototype chips and anticipates delivering sample production units sometime next year. The company has yet to disclose when full-scale commercial shipments will begin.
