Celestial AI

Company Overview

Celestial AI is a semiconductor manufacturing company based in Santa Clara, California that is developing optical interconnect technology for AI computing and memory infrastructure. The company was founded to address the growing challenges in AI infrastructure as AI models rapidly increase in size and complexity.

Celestial AI’s core technology is called the Photonic Fabric, which is an optical interconnect platform designed to dramatically improve chip-to-chip and chip-to-memory connectivity for AI systems. The company positions this technology as a solution to the “Memory Wall” problem in AI computing, allowing for much higher bandwidth and lower latency connections between processors and memory.

Products Overview

The main product offering from Celestial AI is the Photonic Fabric technology platform. Key features and capabilities include:

• Optical interconnects that can deliver data “directly to the point of compute”
• Support for current HBM3E and next-generation HBM4 memory bandwidth and latency requirements
• Very low power consumption (single digit pJ/bit)
• Ability to scale to tens of terabytes of optically connected memory capacity
• Enables clusters of hundreds of GPUs or AI accelerators to be optically interconnected
• Claims to offer up to 25x increase in off-package bandwidth compared to other state-of-the-art technologies

The company positions the Photonic Fabric as a transformative technology for AI infrastructure, stating it is “ten years more advanced than existing technologies.”

Founding Team

The co-founders of Celestial AI are:

• David Lazovsky - Co-Founder and CEO
• Preet Virk - Co-Founder and COO

Problem and Market Fit

Celestial AI is addressing the growing challenges in AI infrastructure as AI models rapidly increase in size and complexity. Specifically, they are targeting the “Memory Wall” problem, where traditional interconnect technologies struggle to keep up with the bandwidth and latency requirements of large AI workloads.

The company states that post-GPT, AI infrastructure has transitioned from being constrained by computing cycles to being limited by memory and interconnect bandwidth. Their Photonic Fabric technology aims to overcome these limitations.

Business Model

While specific details of Celestial AI’s business model are not provided, it appears they are developing their Photonic Fabric technology for integration into AI computing systems. The company mentions working with some of the largest hyperscalers, suggesting they are targeting major cloud and AI infrastructure providers as customers.

Funding and Runway

Celestial AI has raised significant funding, including:

• $175 million Series C funding round announced on March 27, 2024, led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund
• $100 million funding round announced in June 2023

The total amount raised across all rounds is not specified, but these recent large rounds indicate strong investor interest and suggest the company likely has a substantial runway.

Competitive Landscape

The company positions its Photonic Fabric technology as significantly more advanced than existing interconnect solutions, claiming it is “ten years more advanced than existing technologies.” However, specific competitors are not named in the provided information.

Customers

While specific customers are not named, Celestial AI mentions collaborating with “some of the largest hyperscalers” and announced in March 2024 that lead hyperscaler customers had adopted their Photonic Fabric technology.

Relevant News

• March 27, 2024: Celestial AI closes $175 million Series C funding round led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund.
• March 25, 2024: Celestial AI announces Photonic Fabric adoption by lead hyperscaler customers.
• June 6, 2024: Celestial AI appoints Kelyn Brannon as Chief Financial Officer. Brannon brings over 30 years of executive leadership experience and has led three IPOs as CFO.
• The company has also made several high-profile appointments to its board of directors, including Bethany Mayer and Diane Bryant, indicating preparation for potential future growth or public offering.

Celestial AI appears to be positioning itself as a key enabler of next-generation AI infrastructure, with significant funding and apparent traction with major hyperscale customers. The company’s focus on optical interconnect technology for AI computing puts it at the forefront of addressing critical bottlenecks in scaling AI systems.