Ayar Labs

Type: Company (Optical I/O Chiplets)

Ayar Labs has unveiled the world's first optical chiplet compliant with the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) standard, enabling optical I/O to be integrated directly into multi-die chip packages alongside compute chiplets. Nvidia's strategic backing signals that the dominant AI hardware company sees optical interconnect as essential for next-generation AI systems.

SuperNova Light Source

• 16 wavelengths — wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) for maximum bandwidth density
• 8 Tbps aggregate bandwidth — per chiplet
• UCIe compliant — industry standard for chiplet-to-chiplet interconnect
• Co-packaging ready — designed for integration with compute dies (GPUs, AI accelerators)

TSMC COUPE Partnership

• COUPE: TSMC's Compact Universal Photonic Engine platform
• Integration: Enables optical chiplets to be co-packaged with TSMC-fabricated compute dies
• Ecosystem: Makes optical I/O accessible to any chip designer using TSMC
• Manufacturing: Leverages CoWoS and InFO advanced packaging

Funding & Commercialization

• $500M Series E: March 2026 — led by Neuberger Berman; investors include MediaTek and Nvidia
• Nvidia backing: Strategic investment (first invested 2022); dominant AI chip company signal
• Production samples: Targeted for 2026
• Data center deployment: On track for 2027-2028
• Hsinchu, Taiwan office: Near TSMC for tight manufacturing collaboration

TeraPHY Reference Design

• 8 TeraPHY chiplets per package → 200+ Tbps aggregate bandwidth
• ~5x the bandwidth of Nvidia's Rubin GPUs
• Target: 10,000 GPU dies connected at ~100kW rack power
• Partners: GUC (Global Unichip Corp), Alchip

Key Contributions

• First UCIe-compliant optical chiplet (Ayar Labs UCIe Chiplet)
• SuperNova 16-wavelength light source, 8 Tbps (Ayar Labs UCIe Chiplet)
• TSMC COUPE partnership for co-packaged optics (Ayar Labs UCIe Chiplet)
• $500M Series E raise with Nvidia and MediaTek backing (Ayar Labs $500M)
• TeraPHY: 200+ Tbps/package reference design, 5x Rubin GPU bandwidth (Ayar Labs $500M)
• First fully integrated COUPE-based optical I/O engine (with Alchip): 100 Tb/s per accelerator (TSMC COUPE)

Mentioned In

• Photonic Interconnects — UCIe optical chiplet standardization
• Co-Packaged Optics — Primary commercial CPO implementation

Related Entities

• Lightmatter — Co-packaged optics competitor (Passage L200)
• TSMC (Photonics Division) — COUPE foundry partner
• OIF — Standards body setting CPO interoperability specs