Beyond NVLink: Celestial AI’s Photonic Interconnect Leadership and Capital Strategy in the Trillion-Parameter AI Era
Original Articles By SemiVision Research (Celestial AI, Nvidia ,TSMC)
As contemporary AI models scale at an unprecedented pace—from billions to tens of trillions of parameters—the pressure on underlying infrastructure continues to intensify. Traditional electronic interconnect architectures are increasingly becoming bottlenecks in the path of AI expansion, especially in terms of the memory wall and data transfer efficiency. Celestial AI, a next-generation leader in optical computing and interconnect technologies, is redefining system scalability in the AI era with its revolutionary Photonic Fabric architecture.
Celestial AI is a Silicon Valley startup based in Santa Clara, California, dedicated to developing Photonic Fabric—a breakthrough optical interconnect platform designed to address the "memory wall" bottleneck in today’s AI computing architectures. By leveraging optical interconnects, Celestial AI delivers high bandwidth, low latency, and low power solutions that support AI accelerator scaling from intra-chip to multi-rack deployments.
In current architectures for generative AI and large model inference, the “memory wall” has emerged as a critical barrier to system performance scaling. This phenomenon arises from a severe mismatch between the data access speed of compute units (such as GPUs) and memory modules. As model sizes have ballooned from billions to tens of trillions of parameters, the GPU’s immense computing power is often underutilized, constrained by insufficient memory bandwidth and latency bottlenecks—leading to a paradox of idle compute and memory starvation.
As of 2025, Celestial AI has successfully completed multiple funding rounds, raising over $515 million in total. Its investor base includes some of the world’s leading tech companies, venture capital firms, and strategic partners—underscoring strong industry confidence in its photonic interconnect technology.
Key investors include:
Fidelity Management & Research Company: Led the $250 million Series C1 round in March 2025, bringing Celestial AI’s valuation to $2.5 billion.
BlackRock: One of the world’s largest asset managers; participated in the Series C1 round.
Maverick Silicon: A firm focused on advanced semiconductor technologies; joined the C1 round.
Tiger Global Management: A globally recognized investment firm; part of the C1 round.
Lip-Bu Tan: Former CEO of Cadence and current Intel CEO ; participated personally in the C1 round.
AMD Ventures: AMD’s corporate venture arm; has been a consistent backer of Celestial AI.
Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT): The innovation investment division of Koch Industries; joined multiple rounds.
Temasek Holdings and its subsidiary Xora Innovation: Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and its innovation arm; participated in multiple rounds.
Porsche Automobil Holding SE: The German automotive giant; invested across multiple rounds.
The Engine Ventures: A venture firm incubated by MIT; participated in multiple rounds.
Samsung Catalyst Fund: Samsung’s innovation investment unit; joined multiple rounds.
M Ventures: The venture arm of Merck Group; an active investor in multiple rounds.
Tyche Partners: A VC firm specializing in deep tech; took part in multiple rounds.
These investors have contributed not only capital but also valuable strategic resources and industry connections, accelerating Celestial AI’s innovation and commercialization in photonic interconnect technologies.
Celestial AI is quickly positioning itself as the defining force behind next-generation AI datacenter interconnect and memory architectures. Rather than being simply another Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) solution, Photonic Fabric represents a full-stack optical platform purpose-built for the future of AI systems. Its strengths in energy efficiency, scalability, modular design, and support for large-scale AI inference give it the potential to reshape the industry landscape.
CEO David Lazovsky – Key Commentary
“AI infrastructure is evolving from single XPUs to thousands of interconnected processors across racks. Traditional interconnect architectures have become bottlenecks. Photonic Fabric is the only full-stack platform capable of simultaneously solving bandwidth, latency, energy efficiency, and total cost of ownership (TCO) challenges.”
Investor & Partner Endorsements
BlackRock: In the midst of explosive AI growth, Celestial AI holds a “unique advantage.”
Maverick Silicon: Its terabit-per-second interconnect and in-network compute capabilities are reshaping AI infrastructure.
Diane Bryant (Board Member, Broadcom): The company’s technology delivers "unmatched performance and energy efficiency," and is transforming AI networking and memory architecture.
Where Is Celestial AI Heading?
Celestial AI is rapidly becoming the defining force in next-generation AI data center interconnect and memory architecture. Rather than being just another Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) solution, Photonic Fabric is a full-stack optical platform purpose-built for the architectures of future AI systems. Its potential to disrupt the industry lies in its superior energy efficiency, scalability, modular design, and ability to support massive model inference workloads.
For Paid Members , SemiVision will discuss topics on
Driving AI Architecture Transformation Through Optical Interconnect
Celestial AI’s EAM Modulator Technology and Industry Challenges
Three Key Symptoms of the Memory Wall
The Solution: Decoupling Compute from Memory + Optical Interconnect Architecture
Key Advantages of Celestial AI’s Solution:
Celestial AI and the Next Generation of Optical I/O: Breaking the Memory Wall and Scaling Future AI Inference Infrastructure
HBM + DDR5: An Integrated Optical Interconnect Architecture
Photonic Fabric IP and Technology Integration
SemiVision’s Summary of Celestial AI’s Four Core Technologies: Building the Next-Gen Optical Interconnect Infrastructure
① Thermally Stable GeSi Electro-Absorption Modulators (EAMs)
② Advanced Packaging Integration (in collaboration with TSMC, 2.5D/3D platforms)
③ DSP-Free Direct Drive Architecture
④ Full-Stack Electro-Optical Protocol Optimization (Gearbox-free, Channel-Level Architecture)
Celestial AI Product Architecture: The Three Core Offerings Built on Photonic Fabric Technology
①. PFLink™: Optical Interconnect Between XPUs
② . PFSwitch™: Low-Latency, High-Bandwidth Optical Switch
③. OMIB™: Optical Multi-die Interconnect Bridge
Why Is Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric the Next "NVLink Replacement" for AI Infrastructure?
A Three-Layer Deconstruction of Celestial AI’s Optical Interconnect Architecture Shift