Celestial AI, a company focused on optical interconnect technology for modern AI infrastructure, has raised $255 million in a Series C1 funding round. Strategic investments came from VentureTech Alliance and Samsung Catalyst Fund, bringing total funding to $520 million.
The new funds will accelerate the commercialization of its Photonic Fabric technology, designed to move data optically between processors and servers, addressing performance and energy challenges of AI-scale workloads.
With $520 million raised, Celestial AI is set to expand the commercial use of its Photonic Fabric, aiming to enhance AI infrastructure performance globally.
The funding comes amid significant investment in AI infrastructure as enterprises and hyperscalers expand computing capacity. Traditional copper-based interconnects, used for data transfer between processors, are increasingly seen as bottlenecks due to bandwidth limitations and higher power requirements.
Celestial AI argues that next-generation AI, relying on millions of processors, requires a shift to optical interconnects for high bandwidth, low latency, and improved energy efficiency. The Photonic Fabric platform enables optical data transport from chip-to-chip within processor packages to server-to-server across racks, promising scalability and reduced power constraints for AI data centers.
CEO David Lazovsky highlighted the urgency of the transition, noting copper interconnects no longer suffice for data movement required by advanced AI models. He positioned Photonic Fabric as a generational leap in infrastructure, supporting the shift toward ultra-fast, power-efficient systems. The funding will also strengthen Celestial AI’s supply chain for volume manufacturing, expand production capacity, and deepen partnerships with foundries, including TSMC.
The round included participation from existing investors like AMD Ventures, IMEC XPand, Penguin Solutions, and Fidelity Management & Research Company, alongside major backers such as BlackRock, Tiger Global, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Temasek, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
VentureTech Alliance, a new strategic investor, emphasized optical interconnects’ critical role in meeting AI infrastructure’s scalability and sustainability demands. Managing partner Kai Tsang described the technology as essential for the semiconductor ecosystem, reducing power consumption while enabling processor scaling beyond electrical interconnects.
Celestial AI’s growing investor base reflects the strategic importance of optical interconnects in computing’s future. As AI models grow larger and workloads more complex, data centers face challenges around bandwidth, latency, and energy efficiency. The company is positioning itself at the center of this transition, with technology that could become foundational for hyperscalers and enterprises deploying large-scale AI systems.
