Upscale AI Launches With $100 Mn Seed Round to Build Open-Standard AI Networking Infrastructure

Palo Alto, Calif. — Sept. 18, 2025 — Upscale AI, a new high-performance networking company for artificial intelligence, has officially launched with over $100 million in seed funding.

Upscale AI aims to democratise AI networking through sustainable, ultra-low latency, open-standard solutions that interconnect compute, data, and users. Its product suite builds on SONiC, Ultra Accelerator Link (UAL), Ultra Ethernet (UE), and Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI), while actively contributing to the Ultra Ethernet Consortium, OCP, and SONiC Foundation.

“From enterprise networking to building cloud infrastructure, Upscale AI’s team has been at the centre of every major computing shift over the past 20 years. Now, our world-class team is applying its depth and breadth of expertise to the next frontier: open AI-native infrastructure. Our deep expertise enables us to architect cohesive AI infrastructure solutions, partnering with leading xPU vendors and AI innovators to meet today’s demands and power what’s next,” Barun Kar, CEO of Upscale AI, said in a press release.

“We incubated Upscale AI with a bold vision to reimagine networking for the AI era anchored in openness, performance, and scale,” added Rajiv Khemani, Executive Chairman of Upscale AI and CEO of Auradine.

The founding team of more than 100 technologists includes veterans from Palo Alto Networks, Marvell, Broadcom, Intel, Cisco, AWS, Microsoft, and Google.

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. The startup was incubated by Auradine, an infrastructure player in blockchain and AI compute.

Investors highlighted the importance of Upscale AI’s open-standards approach. Navin Chaddha of Mayfield said, “Upscale AI is reimagining the entire AI networking stack… breaking free from proprietary systems.”