Upscale AI raised $190 million in a Series A-1 round, valuing the Santa Clara, California-based AI networking startup at $2 billion, according to Fortune.
Premji Invest, a $15 billion investment fund, led the round
New investors include Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, Temasek, and Seligman Ventures. Returning backers Maverick Silicon, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, StepStone Group, and Tiger Global also participated, according to Reuters. The investment brings the company’s total funding to $500 million, all raised in under 18 months.
At its core, the company has developed an integrated stack of hardware, systems, and software designed to link AI chips, memory, and storage so that large models can train and run with reduced latency. More than 80 companies, including AMD, Intel, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, have signed on to support the open standard that underpins Upscale’s approach, which is aimed at letting processors from competing chip vendors interoperate at full speed. “We are trying to get those GPUs to talk the same language,” cofounder and CEO Barun Kar said. Proceeds from the raise will go toward growing Upscale’s operations and pushing its AI networking products to market faster.