英伟达出钱，替换自家机柜里的铜缆
Ayar Labs已将2026年年内的新股融资推高至6.5亿美元，用于研制可替代AI加速器之间铜互连的光学引擎。英伟达、AMD、英特尔与纬颖（Wiwynn）均在其股东名单上；公司首席执行官马克·韦德给自己定下的最后期限，是2027年底前通过量产验证。
Vincent Jiang · 2 min read
一年融资6.5亿美元，对应两个估值
Ayar Labs于9月10日追加1.5亿美元融资，为3月完成的5亿美元E轮融资加码；该轮融资对该公司的估值为37.5亿美元，其累计融资额由此达到8.7亿美元1 2。一笔由Artisan Partners旗下Antero Peak Group领投的2.25亿美元老股转让，Sequoia Global Equities、ARK Invest与Greycroft参与其中，让早期股东得以按超过50亿美元的估值退出3。
战略投资方的名单，最能说明问题。台湾机柜厂商纬颖今年早些时候入股，加入智原科技（Alchip）、AMD、英特尔、联发科和英伟达的行列1 4。首席执行官马克·韦德表示：“铜互连正日益成为AI纵向扩展（scale-up）的瓶颈”1。
以光代铜
Ayar的TeraPHY光学引擎把光子器件集成到芯片封装内部、紧挨着加速器，让数据以光的形式离开芯片。其与纬颖联合设计的这款机柜最多可扩展至1024个加速器，每个加速器的光互连带宽超过100Tbps（太比特每秒）5。韦德说，如今制约AI收入增长的正是纵向扩展互连：2Tbps和4Tbps的芯粒（chiplet）已进入客户实验室，8Tbps的产品也在路上；良率难题则出在光纤与芯片的耦合6。一项预测显示，美国硅光子市场2025年规模为10.0亿美元，到2035年将增至107.6亿美元7。
英伟达两头下注
英伟达曾与英特尔、AMD联合领投Ayar的1.55亿美元D轮融资，随后又参与了E轮融资7 8。今年6月，Ayar加入NVLink Fusion生态，让自家光学方案与英伟达的机柜兼容；在韦德看来，这种“绑定”才是真正的市场所在6 8 9。开放阵营这边的替代方案，UALink联盟成员已突破115家，光学技术也写进了路线图；同一批厂商中，不少在两边同时下注10。
英伟达在另一个方向上也做了对冲：已入股Lumentum、康宁（Corning）和高意（Coherent），自家的共封装光学交换机更已全面量产9。无论背板里跑的是铜还是光，收费站始终立在英伟达安放它的地方。
2027年底前完成量产验证，否则错过放量窗口
韦德的时间表是公开的：客户产品将在2028年至2029年放量，因此Ayar必须在2027年底前通过量产验证3。本月这波硅光子融资潮中的其他公司，募资额要小得多11。
Ayar的1.5亿美元追加融资，超过其余三笔融资之和
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Ayar Labs追加融资 | $150M |
| Polaris Electro-Optics | $50M |
| Quintessent | $40M |
| PicoJool | $27.5M |
这场访谈打着“通往IPO之路”的旗号出炉6。铜缆正如期退场；悬而未决的是，接替者会在英伟达的机柜之内建成，还是站到它的对立面。
How this brief was made
01Gathered & sourced329 channels · 2,305 articles▾
Agents swept 329 channels and ingested 2,305 articles, then de-duplicated and ranked them for signal.
02Verified & cross-validated11 claims · 38 data feeds▾
Every one of 11 load-bearing claims was checked against primary sources, with 38 live data feeds reconciling the figures and charts.
- 1Business Wire via Yahoo Finance, "Ayar Labs Expands 2026 Funding to $650 Million to Scale Manufacturing-Ready CPO for AI Scale-Up Beyond the Rack," 10 September 2026
- 2Pulse 2, "Ayar Labs: $500 Million Series E Raised At $3.75 Billion Valuation For Optics Solutions For AI Scale-Up," 3 March 2026
- 3Reuters (Stephen Nellis), "Ayar Labs, backed by chip giants, extends funding round by $150 million," 10 September 2026
- 4Semiconductor Today, "Ayar Labs expands 2026 funding to $650m to scale manufacturing-ready CPO for AI scale-up beyond rack," 10 September 2026
- 5Business Wire, "Ayar Labs and Wiwynn Partner to Bring Co-Packaged Optics to Rack-Scale AI Systems," 10 March 2026
- 6TMTB Podcast Intel (Ethmos), "Ayar Labs CEO Mark Wade on the Interconnect Bottleneck, Co-Packaged Optics and the Road to an IPO," 22 September 2026
- 7Quantum Zeitgeist, "Ayar Labs says US silicon photonics market will grow ten-fold by 2035," 25 September 2026
- 8Business Wire, "Ayar Labs Joins NVIDIA NVLink Fusion Ecosystem to Bring Co-Packaged Optics to Rack-Scale AI Infrastructure," 2 June 2026
- 9SDxCentral (Ben Wodecki), "Ayar Labs joins NVLink Fusion, bringing co-packaged optics to Nvidia's AI infrastructure," 3 June 2026
- 1036Kr (English edition), "Ex-Intel veterans team up to take on NVLink," 26 September 2026
- 11Semiecosystem (Mark Lapedus, Substack), "Ayar, PicoJool, Polaris, Quintessent Receive VC Funding," 25 September 2026
03Reviewed & edited1 human editor▾
One editor read the draft against the evidence, tuned the framing, and signed off before it shipped.
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