Upscale AI Inc., a developer of networking chips for artificial intelligence clusters, has raised $200 million in funding.

The startup disclosed in its announcement of the round today that Tiger Global, Premji Invest and Xora Innovation were the lead investors. They were joined by the venture capital arms of Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Technologies Inc. along with several others. The investment brings Upscale AI’s outside funding to more than $300 million.

An AI cluster comprises multiple racks that can each contain several dozen servers. Those servers exchange data with one another via a switch built into the host rack. A rack switch’s technical attributes often differ significantly from those of other networking devices, such as those used to connect different racks with one another.

Upscale AI is developing a chip optimized for scale-up networking, the task of linking together the hardware components inside a rack. The processor, which is called SkyHammer, will offer deterministic latency. That means the amount of time a piece of data requires to travel between one rack component to one another can be predicted with a high degree of certainty.

AI models process data using calculations that must be carried out in a specific sequence. As a result, a delay in one calculation often requires all the subsequent processing steps to be postponed. The ability to predict network latency ahead of time avoids unexpected data transmission delays that might slow down AI workloads.

Upscale AI says SkyHammer will also generate real-time telemetry. Telemetry, or technical data about a system, is needed for not only troubleshooting but also configuration tasks. Administrators can analyze telemetry about the state of a network device to find ways of optimizing its performance.

SkyHammer is compatible with multiple open-source networking technologies. The list includes UALink and ESUN, two projects that seek to harness Ethernet for scale-up networking use cases. ESUN, the newer of the two initiatives, launched last year with backing from Nvidia Corp., Broadcom Inc. and other major industry players.

SkyHammer will also support a networking technology called UEC. Whereas ESUN is designed to link together the components inside a rack, UEC is geared toward connecting different racks with one another. It can power AI clusters with up to 1 million chips.

“As AI systems scale, interconnect efficiency has become a defining driver of performance and economics — not just raw compute,” said Premji Invest managing partner Sandesh Patnam.

Upscale will use its newly raised funding to enhance its technology and hire more go-to-market professionals. The company plans to launch its first SkyHammer-products later this year. Those products reportedly include a high-radix switch that can power a large number of connections.

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