Upscale AI, a new high-performance AI networking company, launched today with over $100 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Mayfield and Maverick Silicon, with participation from StepStone Group, Celesta Capital, Xora, Qualcomm Ventures, Cota Capital, MVP Ventures, and Stanford University. Incubated by Auradine, Upscale AI is introducing a suite of next-generation networking solutions purpose-built to accelerate AI workloads with open standards.
Led by industry veterans from Palo Alto Networks, Marvell, Cisco, and Google, Upscale AI is pioneering open-standard technology to offer greater choice and flexibility in AI infrastructure. The company’s portfolio is built on SONiC, Ultra Accelerator Link (UAL), and Ultra Ethernet (UE), and the team actively contributes to these open-source initiatives. This approach enables true bring-your-own-compute flexibility, breaking free from proprietary systems.
AI's exponential growth has outpaced traditional networks, creating a $20+ billion market opportunity. Upscale AI is addressing this by designing silicon, systems, and software for ultra-low latency networking, enabling breakthrough performance for AI training, inference, and cloud-scale deployments.
Upscale AI was founded by serial entrepreneurs Barun Kar (CEO) and Rajiv Khemani (Executive Chairman), who have a history of success with ventures like Palo Alto Networks and Innovium.
“Our world-class team is applying its deep expertise to the next frontier: open AI-native infrastructure,” said Barun Kar, CEO of Upscale AI. “We are architecting cohesive solutions that partner with leading xPU vendors and AI innovators to power what’s next.”
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Upscale AI’s product suite will include:
- AI Network Fabrics: Ultra-low latency fabric to maximize xPU performance and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).
- Unified Network Operating System (NOS): Hardened, production-ready SONiC/SAI for improved scale, uptime, and operationality.
- Disruptive Rack Platforms: Standards-based rack scale solutions that enable end-to-end multi-vendor networking.
"We're witnessing a fundamental transformation in networking as traditional approaches cannot keep pace with AI's demands,” said Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner of Mayfield. “Upscale AI is reimagining the entire AI networking stack, and we’re excited to partner with Barun and Rajiv for the third time as they build a category-defining company for the AI era."
