A new networking solutions provider - Nexthop AI - has launched with $110 million in funding.
The company builds custom networking solutions for hyperscalers that integrate directly into their cloud stack.
The company launched on March 25, along with announcing a funding round of $110 million led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Additional investors include Kleiner Perkins, WestBridge Capital, Battery Ventures, and Emergent Ventures.
The company said the funding will be used to "accelerate the development of Nexthop AI’s pioneering networking solutions for cloud and hyperscale AI clusters." The company's solution is comprised of both software and hardware.
“The world’s largest cloud providers need a new generation of networking capabilities to keep pace with the demands of AI workloads,” said Guru Chahal, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “Nexthop AI is filling a critical gap in this $35 billion market with its deep domain expertise, pioneering technology and customized solutions, positioning the company as the go-to partner for leading cloud providers, seeking to seize the AI revolution.”
“Hyperscalers need the ecosystem to innovate with them to accelerate their infrastructure deployments,” added Anshul Sadana, CEO of Nexthop AI. “Nexthop AI is a force-multiplier, as it partners with and works as an extension of the cloud companies’ engineering teams. This disruptive model enables cloud companies to build the most cost and power-efficient AI solutions.”
Speaking with John Furrier, executive analyst at theCUBE Research, Sadana noted the importance of finding power efficiency in the context of AI deployments.
“Each hyperscaler is adding 1-2GW of capacity every year. Soon, each one will have 10GW of capacity or more,” explained Sadana. “If you can provide even 1 percent of power efficiency, that’s 100MW. That’s the largest data center in the world just a few years ago.”
Nexthop is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company has additional locations in Seattle in the US, Vancouver in Canada, and Begaluru, India.
The company was founded by Sadana in 2024. Sadana was previously COO of Arista Networks, having served in various roles at the company for more than 17 years.
Lightspeed Venture Partners has previously invested in Anthropic, Cato Networks, Mistral, and Foundry.
