CScale Raises $145M Series C Backed by Nvidia, Intel Capital for AI Optical Interconnects

Silicon Valley AI optical interconnect startup CScale, formerly CSpeed, said Oct. 1, 2026, it closed a $145 million Series C round led by Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners and Premji Invest, with Nvidia (NVDA) and Intel Capital (INTC) participating. Total funding reached $188 million. The Palo Alto, California, company expects to deliver its chip products by 2028. CScale, founded in 2023 by CTO Sanjai Kohli and led by CEO Martin Lund, a former Cisco chip and hardware systems head, develops optical interconnect technology linking thousands of AI accelerators in hyperscale data centers. As AI data center speeds reach 400Gbps and gigawatt-scale deployments, copper cabling's distance and power limits force tightly packed accelerator racks, causing thermal and power problems. CScale integrates high-density III-V laser arrays with silicon photonics directly on-chip, designing for fault tolerance so computation continues if one laser fails.