Upscale AI, a pioneering networking enterprise situated in Santa Clara, has officially emerged into the tech landscape, buoyed by substantial seed funding of over $100 million. This investment round, co-led by Mayfield and Maverick Silicon, also saw participation from prominent entities such as StepStone Group, Celesta Capital, Xora, Qualcomm Ventures, Cota Capital, MVP Ventures, and Stanford University.
With its inception, Upscale AI is unveiling a cutting-edge array of networking solutions designed to facilitate high-performance connectivity tailored for specialized computing, thereby democratizing access to artificial intelligence via open-standard, ready-to-deploy solutions.
Founded by serial entrepreneurs
The venture has been founded by seasoned entrepreneurs Barun Kar (CEO) and Rajiv Khemani (Executive Chairman), both notable figures behind the successes of companies such as Palo Alto Networks, Innovium, and Cavium (which was subsequently acquired by Marvell).
Upscale AI’s mission centers around the ambition to democratize AI accessibility through the provision of open-standard, readily applicable solutions. Their offerings, encompassing both hardware and software, are engineered to optimize networking efficiency while ensuring exceptional performance and scalability across various tasks, including AI training, inference, generative AI, edge computing, and cloud deployments.
The company’s workforce boasts over 100 technologists, whose expertise spans esteemed organizations such as Marvell, Broadcom, Intel, Cisco, AWS, Microsoft, Google, Palo Alto Networks, and Juniper Networks.
“The emergence of open, interoperable systems is poised to redefine the benchmark for scalable AI infrastructure,” stated Alan Weckel, co-founder and Technology Analyst at 650 Group.
“Upscale AI is spearheading the kind of innovation we anticipate seeing more frequently as the market transitions away from monolithic structures. Numerous industry-leading tools remain ensnared within closed, vendor-locked systems, while Upscale AI is cultivating a landscape conducive to innovation, performance, and robust competition.”
Building open-standard AI infrastructure
Upscale AI seeks to disrupt existing closed, proprietary frameworks by championing open-standard networking technologies. Its offerings harness the power of SONiC, Ultra Accelerator Link (UAL), Ultra Ethernet (UE), Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI), along with other open-source innovations.
Moreover, the company actively engages in several industry consortia, including the Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC), UAL, Open Compute Project (OCP), and SONiC Foundation, contributing to the enhancement of scale-out and scale-up innovations in the sector.
“From enterprise networking to the development of cloud infrastructures, Upscale AI’s team has been instrumental in every significant computing transformation over the past two decades,” remarked Barun Kar, CEO of Upscale AI.
“Now, we are channeling our comprehensive expertise into the next frontier: the establishment of open AI-native infrastructures. Our depth of knowledge equips us to design cohesive AI infrastructure solutions, collaborating closely with xPU vendors and AI innovators to propel future advancements.”
Products due to launch this fall
Upscale AI is gearing up to introduce its full-stack AI networking infrastructure later this year, with products meticulously crafted to optimize xPU performance and connectivity:
- AI Network Fabrics: Ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth fabrics engineered to diminish total cost of ownership (TCO) while maximizing performance at data center levels.
- Unified NOS based on SAI/SONiC: A fortified, open-standard network operating system (NOS) featuring in-service upgrades and enhanced operational scalability.
- AI Networking Rack Platforms: Standards-compliant, rack-scale networking solutions that enable authentic multivendor interoperability.
“We are on the precipice of a profound transformation in networking since traditional methodologies are ill-equipped to meet the exponential demands of AI,” observed Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner at Mayfield.
“Upscale AI is reimagining the entire AI networking framework, beginning with open-standard solutions that transcend proprietary restrictions. We are eager to continue our collaboration with Barun and Rajiv for the third time.”
Source link: Techfundingnews.com.
