# Ayar Labs

> Ayar Labs is a San Jose-based semiconductor company building optical input/output (I/O) technology that moves data between chips using light instead of copper. Its silicon-photonics chiplets - the TeraPHY optical engine and the SuperNova multi-wavelength light source - are designed to be co-packaged directly with GPUs and other processors, letting AI and high-performance-computing systems scale across thousands of accelerators with far higher bandwidth and far lower power than electrical interconnects. Spun out of a DARPA-funded university research effort, the company raised a $500M Series E in 2026 with backing from NVIDIA and AMD.

- **Founded:** 2015
- **Headquarters:** San Jose, California, United States
- **Founders:** Mark Wade (CEO & Co-Founder), Vladimir Stojanovic (Co-Founder & former CTO), Milos Popovic (Co-Founder), Alexandra Wright-Gladstein (Co-Founder & former CEO), Rajeev Ram (Co-Founder), Chen Sun (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~150 employees
- **Products:** TeraPHY Optical I/O Chiplet, SuperNova Light Source, Optical I/O Evaluation Kit
- **Notable:** Unveiled the world's first UCIe-compliant optical chiplet (TeraPHY) for AI scale-up architectures., Achieved up to 8 Tbps bidirectional bandwidth on a single chiplet at roughly 5 picojoules per bit., Closed a $500M Series E in 2026 at a $3.75B valuation with NVIDIA and AMD participating.

## Products & services

- **TeraPHY Optical I/O Chiplet** — A silicon-photonics chiplet co-packaged with processors that transmits and receives data optically. UCIe-compliant, using 16 wavelengths of light per port for up to 8 Tbps bidirectional bandwidth at roughly 5 picojoules per bit.
- **SuperNova Light Source** — A remote multi-wavelength laser source (CW-WDM MSA compliant) that supplies light to TeraPHY chiplets over standard single-mode fiber; arrays can feed up to a petabit per second of bandwidth into a package.
- **Optical I/O Evaluation Kit** — A development and evaluation platform that lets partners and customers integrate and test Ayar Labs' optical I/O in their own systems.

## Achievements

- Unveiled the world's first UCIe-compliant optical chiplet (TeraPHY) for AI scale-up architectures.
- Achieved up to 8 Tbps bidirectional bandwidth on a single chiplet at roughly 5 picojoules per bit.
- Closed a $500M Series E in 2026 at a $3.75B valuation with NVIDIA and AMD participating.
- Grew total funding to roughly $874M since founding.
- Demonstrated, with Jabil, an external laser source array of 64 SuperNova sources supporting up to a petabit per second of bidirectional bandwidth.
- Spun successful commercial products out of the DARPA POEM university research program.

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Closed $500M Series E led by Neuberger Berman at a $3.75B valuation to accelerate volume production of co-packaged optics; opening a new office in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
- **2025-03** — Unveiled the world's first UCIe-compliant optical chiplet for AI scale-up architectures.
- **2023-12** — Named co-founder Mark Wade CEO, succeeding Charles Wuischpard.

## Links

- Website: https://ayarlabs.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ayar-labs/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/AyarLabs
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYDFwYCUKakmEkzyDfgc_rQ

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ayar-labs
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-13