The Pulse
Salience Labs Raises $125M to Scale Photonic AI Switches
Salience Labs announced an oversubscribed $125 million Series B led by Bullhound Capital on October 14, 2026. The Oxford company plans to scale manufacturing of optical circuit switches and expand its Silicon Valley presence.
AI.info Team · Written with AI ·
Salience Labs announced an oversubscribed $125 million Series B on October 14, saying it will use the money to move its optical circuit switches toward volume manufacturing and enlarge its Silicon Valley presence. Bullhound Capital led the round; its principal, Callum Stewart, will join the company’s board. The financing brings backing from chip-industry investors AMD Ventures and Intel Capital alongside financial firms and existing shareholders.
The Oxford-based company is targeting a problem that grows with AI computing clusters: moving data between large numbers of processors. Its all-optical switches are designed to connect thousands of GPUs across multiple racks. The raise follows a public demonstration of a 64-port photonic switch at ECOC 2026.
A 64-port demonstration precedes the raise
Salience says the funding will accelerate deployment of its optical circuit switching technology and support higher-volume production. It also plans to develop 128- and 256-port versions, extending beyond the 64-port device demonstrated at ECOC. The company describes that demonstration as an industry first for silicon photonics optical circuit switching.
The company’s CEO and co-founder, Vaysh Kewada, tied the financing to the anticipated role of optical switches in AI data-center networks. “OCS will play a critical role in AI datacenter networking,” he said. He added: “As customers roll out optical links in their datacenters, high-performance optical switches are needed to deliver the token economics that workloads demand.”
Investors back manufacturing and market expansion
Alongside Bullhound, participants include AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, SBI Group, Hudson River Trading and British Business Bank. Existing shareholders Applied Ventures, Oxford Science Enterprises, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Silicon Catalyst Ventures also took part. The announcement does not disclose a company valuation or the amount contributed by any individual investor.
AMD Ventures framed its investment around the connection between networking and system performance. “AI infrastructure is increasingly being designed at rack scale, where networking has a direct impact on system performance, efficiency and economics,” said Patrick Rundell, a director at AMD Ventures. He said AMD Ventures would support Salience as it scales its technology and manufacturing capacity.
Volume production is the next test
Salience says it will continue working with Keysight Technologies and Tower Semiconductor to scale manufacturing, and plans to open a second West Coast location in Silicon Valley. The company says its photonic technology draws on more than a decade of research and that it was founded in 2021, based on work associated with the University of Oxford and the University of Münster.
The release does not name customers, give a schedule for commercial deployments or specify production volumes. Those details will matter as the company seeks to turn a demonstrated 64-port switch into equipment it can manufacture at scale. Salience next plans to showcase its optical circuit switching technology at the PECC Summit in Sunnyvale, California, on October 20–21.