Last Updated: 11 March 2025
Celestial AI, the company behind the Photonic Fabric optical interconnect platform, announced today the closing of a $250 million Series C1 funding round.
The round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, bringing Celestial AI's total raised capital to over $515 million.
Other notable investors participating in this round include BlackRock, Maverick Silicon, Tiger Global Management, and Lip-Bu Tan, along with continued support from existing backers such as AMD Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Temasek and its subsidiary Xora Innovation, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, and The Engine Ventures.
As artificial intelligence evolves rapidly, the infrastructure required to support complex models and extensive data processing grows increasingly sophisticated.
Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric technology addresses these challenges directly by enabling high-bandwidth, low-latency networking for AI processors across servers and entire data centers.
“With the emergence of complex reasoning models and agentic AI, the requirements on AI infrastructure are compounding. Cluster sizes must scale from a few AI processors in a server to tens of processors in a single rack and thousands of processors across multiple racks, all while relying on high-bandwidth, low-latency network connectivity to handle massive data transfers between processors. Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric is the only technology platform capable of meeting these critical demands while setting new standards for bandwidth, latency, energy efficiency and total cost of ownership. We are excited to work with top global investors who bring the capital and commitment to support our long-term mission of revolutionizing AI infrastructure with our Photonic Fabric.”
David Lazovsky, CEO of Celestial AI
The new investment will primarily support the expansion and qualification of Celestial AI's manufacturing supply chain, enabling the company to meet growing customer demand.
Already deeply engaged with several major hyperscalers, AI processor developers, and packaging partners, Celestial AI aims to leverage this funding to accelerate market penetration and scale up its production capabilities.
The Photonic Fabric platform, compatible with existing industry-standard manufacturing processes, positions Celestial AI to serve a broad spectrum of customers, from AI computing systems providers to large-scale data centers.
"By providing terabytes of low latency bandwidth and in-network computing, as well as in-network high-speed, high-capacity memory, Photonic Fabric enables the next generation of AI infrastructure, drawing upon the company’s rich IP in optical interconnect within chip, within package and between package-to-package."
Andrew Homan, Managing Partner at Maverick Silicon
Founded with a mission to innovate AI infrastructure through optical interconnect technology, Celestial AI's Photonic Fabric seamlessly networks computing units from chip-level integrations to large-scale server clusters.
By offering products that span connectivity, switching, and packaging, the company delivers a comprehensive solution aimed at drastically enhancing AI performance, scalability, and energy efficiency.
"Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric is fundamentally transforming AI computing, networking and memory solutions by addressing critical infrastructure challenges with unmatched performance and energy efficiency. I have witnessed the innovative potential of their technology to unlock new capabilities and as a member of the Board of Directors, am proud to be on the Celestial AI team as they commercialize their ground-breaking Photonic Fabric platform."
Diane Bryant, Independent Director at Celestial AI and Broadcom Inc.
Celestial AI, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, continues to position itself at the intersection of advanced AI computing and sustainable technology.
This round’s investors include renowned financial institutions such as Fidelity Management & Research Company, which led the investment, alongside funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Maverick Silicon, Tiger Global Management, and prominent investor Lip-Bu Tan.
Existing investors who also participated include Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Temasek and its subsidiary Xora Innovation, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, and The Engine Ventures, further reinforcing Celestial AI’s strong backing from influential global investment firms.
"Amid the explosive growth of Artificial Intelligence, Celestial AI is uniquely positioned to meet the soaring demands of data center infrastructure with its disruptive Photonic Fabric technology."
Tony Kim, Head of Fundamental Equities Technology Group at BlackRock
