iPronics Raises $125 Million to Shrink Optical Switching for AI Data Centers

AI data centers are becoming networking problems as much as computing problems. iPronics, a Valencia, Spain-based startup spun out of the Technical University of Valencia in 2019, is building silicon-photonics-based optical circuit switches designed to reconfigure connections across very large AI clusters. The company says it has raised $177 million to bring that technology into broader commercial deployment. 1

The $125 million Series B

iPronics announced a $125 million Series B on September 2, 2026. Maverick Silicon and Light Street Capital co-led the financing, while Nvidia participated alongside new and existing investors including Triatomic Capital, Bosch Ventures, Catalight Capital, and the European Innovation Council Fund. The round brought the company's total funding to $177 million. 1

The capital is intended to support commercialization of its programmable optical networking technology for AI infrastructure. 1

What iPronics makes

The company develops an optical circuit switch (OCS), a networking device that establishes dedicated paths using light. Rather than relying solely on conventional electronic packet-switching silicon, an OCS can change which computing resources have direct optical connections.

That ability to alter the network's physical topology matters in large AI environments, where many accelerators and other chips must exchange data at high bandwidth. iPronics is applying silicon photonics—the integration of optical components on silicon—to make this switching technology more compact and suitable for data-center deployment. 1

Why optical switching is gaining attention in AI clusters

The scale of AI systems is putting greater pressure on the networks that connect compute chips. Reuters reported that iPronics is targeting networking environments that can connect hundreds of thousands of computing chips, while optical circuit switching has gained visibility through its use in Google's AI-supercomputer networking. 1

In this context, optical switching offers a way to reconfigure connections as workload requirements change. It can also help operators respond to failures: at very large scale, individual chip failures are expected, and iPronics has highlighted the value of rapidly rerouting usable optical paths around failed hardware. 1

The bid to make OCS hardware 20 times smaller

iPronics is pursuing the benefits of optical circuit switching in a much denser form factor. The company aims to shrink the equipment by roughly 20 times relative to current systems, according to Reuters. 1

The practical advantage is rack density. Smaller hardware could enable more switching capacity in constrained server-rack space, a relevant consideration for operators building high-density AI infrastructure. The target remains a company objective, not an independently verified performance result. 1

Commercial status

iPronics says it has been shipping switches for about a year and is working with major AI-infrastructure providers, though it has not publicly named those customers. Its latest financing is meant to help scale commercial deployment rather than fund a purely early-stage research effort. 1

The broader bet is that, as AI clusters continue to expand, programmable optical connections will become a more important layer of data-center design. iPronics' $125 million round gives the company significant resources to test that proposition in production environments. 1