# Salience Labs Raises $125 Million Series B for All-Optical AI Datacenter Switching

Times of AI Desk · 2026-10-14 · Industry

[https://timesof.ai/2026/10/salience-labs-125m-series-b-optical-switching](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/salience-labs-125m-series-b-optical-switching)

> Oxford spin-out Salience Labs raised a $125 million Series B led by Bullhound Capital, with AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, SBI Group, Hudson River Trading and a £10 million investment from the British Business Bank. Proceeds go to volume manufacturing, U.S. expansion and denser switches after an ECOC 2026 64-port all-optical demo.

Named silicon investors and UK public capital are backing the optical switch in the middle of the GPU cluster. On **October 14**, the **British Business Bank** said it had invested **£10 million** in **Salience Labs** as part of a **$125 million Series B** led by UK-headquartered **Bullhound Capital**, alongside **AMD Ventures** and **Intel Capital**.

## The round

New investors also include **SBI Group** and **Hudson River Trading**, the Bank said. Existing shareholders **Applied Ventures**, **Oxford Science Enterprises**, **Cambridge Innovation Capital** and **Silicon Catalyst Ventures** returned. Salience Labs, founded in **2021**, is a spin-out from the **University of Oxford** and the **University of Münster** that builds **optical circuit switching** for AI datacenter networking.

Proceeds will accelerate deployment, scale volume manufacturing and expand the company’s U.S. presence, according to the Bank. **SiliconANGLE** reported the same round and said the money will also fund research and development of higher-density switches.

## What Salience says it has built

CEO and co-founder **Vaysh Kewada** said optical circuit switching will play a critical role in AI datacenter networking and that high-performance optical switches are needed “to deliver the token economics that workloads demand.” SiliconANGLE reported that Salience demonstrated a **64-port all-optical photonic switch** at **ECOC 2026** in September and that denser **128-port** and **256-port** configurations are under development. SiliconANGLE’s headline calls the demo the “world’s most advanced” fully optical circuit-switching tech; that framing is the outlet’s and the company’s, not an independent ranking.

**Charlotte Lawrence**, Managing Director and Head of Direct Equity at the British Business Bank, said today’s AI datacentres are “increasingly limited by the efficiency of the networking.” Intel Capital’s **Srini Ananth**, quoted by SiliconANGLE, said Salience “stands out through its integrated silicon photonics architecture and proprietary optical amplification.”

## Limits

- Performance and “market leading” claims are company and investor statements; commercial scale is not independently audited here.
- No valuation was disclosed.
- SiliconANGLE cites a Cignal AI forecast for the optical circuit-switching market; that forecast was not checked for this article.

## Sources

- [British Business Bank: British Business Bank invests £10m in Salience Labs as part of $125m Series B funding round (October 14, 2026)](https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/news-and-events/news/british-business-bank-invests-ps10m-salience-labs-part-125m-series-b-funding-round)
- [SiliconANGLE: Salience Labs raises $125M after showcasing world’s most advanced, fully optical circuit-switching tech (October 14, 2026)](https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/14/salience-labs-raises-125m-in-funding-after-showcasing-worlds-most-advanced-fully-optical-circuit-switching-tech/)