Key points:
- Upscale AI has emerged from stealth with $100 million in funding to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in AI networking infrastructure.
- The company is developing an open-standard solution for AI networking, building on initiatives like SONiC and UEC specifications.
- Upscale AI aims to provide a fully vertically integrated solution, covering silicon, system, software, and everything in between, to democratize AI networking and provide faster innovation with more choices.
According to sources, Upscale AI, a startup founded in 2024, has recently emerged from stealth with a significant $100 million in funding. This investment is co-led by Mayfield and Maverick Silicon, with participation from several other notable investors, including Qualcomm Ventures and Stanford University. The company’s mission is to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in AI networking infrastructure, which has been a major player in this space with its NVLink technology.
Upscale AI is led by Barun Kar, a veteran in the networking industry, who previously worked at Palo Alto Networks and Innovium. Kar explained that the company’s goal is to provide a network that has very low latency, predictable latency, high bandwidth, and is a memory semantic load-store network. He also emphasized that Nvidia’s NVLink is a closed standard, and Upscale AI aims to provide a completely open, standards-based solution.
The company’s technical approach leverages multiple open standards initiatives, including SONiC, UEC specifications, UALink standards, and SAI. These standards will provide the foundation for Upscale AI’s solution, which will enable any compute vendor, any accelerator, or even hyperscalers to bring their own compute and seamlessly plug into the rack. Upscale AI is also developing custom ASICs for scale-up applications, while partnering with existing manufacturers for scale-out and management functions.
Upscale AI’s strategy is to provide a fully vertically integrated solution, covering silicon, system, software, and everything in between. This approach will enable the company to provide a complete solution for AI networking, from the network operating system to the accelerator interconnects. The company plans to use the $100 million funding to develop scale-out products using merchant silicon and out-of-band management, followed by scale-up solutions with custom ASICs and then complete racks.
As Upscale AI moves forward, it will be interesting to see how the company’s open-standard solution will impact the AI networking landscape, and how it will democratize AI networking, providing faster innovation with more choices. With its strong leadership and significant funding, Upscale AI is well-positioned to challenge Nvidia’s dominance and provide a new solution for AI networking infrastructure. The company’s focus on open standards and vertical integration will likely make it a major player in this space, and its impact will be felt across the industry, including Microsoft, Azure, and other companies that rely on AI networking infrastructure. Upscale AI’s solution has the potential to improve the performance and reduce the costs of AI networking, making it a significant development for companies that use Windows Server and other Microsoft products.
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