Insider Brief
- nEye.ai raised $80M in Series C funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures, bringing total funding to $152M, with participation from CapitalG, M12, and others.
- The company will use the capital to scale production of its Optical Circuit Switch (OCS) technology, enabling flexible, high-performance data center architectures to support next-generation AI workloads and composable infrastructure.
- nEye’s “OCS-on-a-chip” integrates silicon photonics, MEMS, and CMOS into a compact, energy-efficient solution, positioning it to meet growing demand for high-bandwidth, low-power connectivity in hyperscale AI data centers.
PRESS RELEASE — nEye.ai, a pioneer in integrated optical interconnects, announced it has raised $80 million in Series C financing led by Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from existing investors including Alphabet’s independent growth fund, CapitalG; Microsoft’s Venture Fund, M12; and Socratic Partners, among others. This latest infusion of capital brings nEye’s total funding to $152 million.
The funding will accelerate the development and high-volume manufacturing of nEye’s proprietary Optical Circuit Switches (OCS). As AI gigawatt factories emerge as the standard for large-scale compute, the industry is shifting toward composable infrastructure. nEye’s technology introduces compact, fast-switching optical layers that allow for the flexible pooling of CPU, GPU, and memory resources, ensuring data center architectures can evolve alongside rapidly advancing AI models.
In conjunction with the financing, Stefan Dyckerhoff, Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures, will join the nEye Board of Directors.
“The market for Optical Circuit Switching is projected to surpass $3 billion within the next three years,” said Dyckerhoff. “By moving away from complex mechanical assemblies to a foundry-compatible wafer-scale process, nEye is positioned to deliver the most cost-effective, high-performance switching solution for scale-up, scale-out and scale-across applications.”
“Optical switching is now a requirement to unlock the true potential of AI training and inference at scale,” said James Luo, General Partner at CapitalG. “We are doubling down on nEye because their ‘OCS-on-a-chip’ approach offers a unique path to meeting the extreme density and power constraints of modern hyperscale data centers.”
nEye integrates Silicon Photonics, MEMS, and CMOS into a single chip, allowing for a significantly smaller footprint and lower power consumption compared to traditional switching solutions — critical requirements for the power-constrained environments of next-generation data centers.
“While this milestone validates our technology, our focus now shifts to scaling our foundry-based manufacturing and meeting the rigorous performance standards our customers demand,” said Ashish Vengsarkar, CEO of nEye.ai. “The addition of Stefan and the team at Sutter Hill Ventures to our existing slate of strategic partners strengthens our ability to address all hyperscaler use-cases.”
About nEye.ai
nEye.ai is a pioneer in reconfigurable optical interconnects, reimagining data center connectivity through its unique Optical Circuit Switch (OCS) on-a-chip architecture. By fusing silicon photonics with advanced MEMS technology, nEye.ai delivers the ultra-low latency, massive bandwidth, and superior power efficiency required to fuel the next generation of AI fabrics. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, nEye has received venture funding from Sutter Hill Ventures; Alphabet’s independent growth fund, CapitalG; Socratic Partners; Microsoft’s venture fund, M12; and Micron Technology. Learn more at http://neye.ai, and see open roles at https://www.neye.ai/join-us.
Contacts
Melissa Sobel, melissasobel@capitalg.com
