Nexthop AI launches with 0 million in funding

AI infrastructure company Nexthop AI has launched from stealth with $110 million in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The Santa Clara-headquarted company also has operations in Bengaluru.

The round also saw participation from 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, the company said.

“The world’s largest cloud providers need a new generation of networking capabilities to keep pace with the demands of AI workloads,” said Guru Chahal, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “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.”

Nexthop AI specializes in building custom networking solutions for the hyperscalers, which integrate into their optimized cloud-stack. 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.

“Hyperscalers need the ecosystem to innovate with them to accelerate their infrastructure deployments,” said Anshul Sadana, CEO of Nexthop AI. “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.”