Nexthop AI, a company building the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for the world’s largest cloud companies, launched from stealth with $110 million in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. And additional investors include Kleiner Perkins, WestBridge Capital, Battery Ventures and Emergent Ventures. This funding will accelerate the development of Nexthop AI’s pioneering networking solutions for cloud and hyperscale AI clusters.
For facilitating the scale requirements of AI training and inference, hyperscalers are spending billions in evolving their GPU and networking deployments with upwards of two gigawatts of capacity annually. And these companies also require highly optimized hardware and software infrastructure tunable for datacenter build outs.
Nexthop AI specializes in created custom networking solutions for the hyperscalers, which integrate seamlessly into their optimized cloud-stack. And this includes building networking hardware designed to each customer’s specifications, a network operating system of their choice hardened by Nexthop AI, along with pre-tested optical and electrical interconnects from the customer’s diverse supply chain.
The network historically played a critical role in supporting each wave of technology innovation, including mainframe to PC, client-server to cloud and now the AI wave. However, Nexthop AI’s sophisticated products, working seamlessly with open source Network Operating Systems like SONiC, provide the agility and customization needed by the hyperscalers. Their expertise in hardware, software, photonics and network architecture enables highly optimized platforms for world class AI infrastructure.
KEY QUOTES:
“The world’s largest cloud providers need a new generation of networking capabilities to keep pace with the demands of AI workloads. Nexthop AI is filling a critical gap in this $35 billion market with its deep domain expertise, pioneering technology and customized solutions, positioning the company as the go-to partner for leading cloud providers, seeking to seize the AI revolution.”
– Guru Chahal, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
“Hyperscalers need the ecosystem to innovate with them to accelerate their infrastructure deployments. Nexthop AI is a force-multiplier, as it partners with and works as an extension of the cloud companies’ engineering teams. This disruptive model enables cloud companies to build the most cost and power efficient AI solutions.”
– Anshul Sadana, CEO of Nexthop AI
