Tim Wilson

We would note 3nm, as a sweet spot for high performance computing, networking and flagship smartphone chipsets, could see the utilization staying close to full even with continued expansion on strong project pipeline. The node could be even more profitable from 2028-29 when the fixed cost starts rolling off following 5 year depreciation cycle.

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AI infrastructure is hitting a power and bandwidth wall, with interconnects increasingly becoming the bottleneck. As connectivity demands surge, copper alone can’t keep up. Co-packaged optics changes the equation That’s why I’m excited to share that Ayar Labs has closed a $500M Series E, accelerating the path to volume production of co-packaged optics (CPO). A big thank you to our lead investor Neuberger Berman and the outstanding group of financial investors supporting this round — ARK Invest, Insight Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, Sequoia Global Equities, and 1789 Capital — alongside strategic ecosystem partners AMD, Alchip Technologies, MediaTek, and NVIDIA. Beyond the funding itself, this week has been especially energizing on the road meeting with many of our customers and ecosystem partners. The message is clear: the industry is ready for optical I/O at scale. This capital allows us to move faster alongside our customers and partners as they architect the next generation of AI systems. This next phase is focused on execution: • Scaling high-volume production and test capacity • Expanding global operations, including our presence in Hsinchu • Deepening partnerships across AI, hyperscalers, and custom ASICs • Accelerating deployment of our CPO solutions Grateful to our investors, customers, and the incredible Ayar Labs team pushing this vision forward. The future of AI infrastructure will be built with light ! Mark Wade Lisa Dulchinos Vladimir Stojanovic Jesse R. Leiter Matthew Gloss, Esq.

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AI isn’t just a computing story. It’s becoming an energy story. This piece looks at the proposed ~9 GW gas power project in Ohio tied to AI data center demand. The scale is staggering. Projects like this highlight how quickly electricity demand from AI could reshape power infrastructure planning and economics. One point that stands out: the cost of reliable, large-scale power for AI may be far higher than many expect. As hyperscalers push for dedicated generation and firm capacity, the traditional model of grid expansion and cost sharing starts to break down. It raises a bigger question for the energy transition: Who ultimately pays for the massive power buildout required to support AI? Worth the read. https://lnkd.in/e36NsBd5

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Menlo Micro is building momentum with its latest project: a partnership with NVIDIA to speed up the testing of new chips. Read how Menlo's technology modernized the switchboard to eliminate a bottleneck in the recent Reuters article by Stephen Nellis: https://lnkd.in/gZVcrY4n

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Alphabet is spinning off GFiber to merge with Astound, creating one of the largest private fiber residential operators in the U.S., reaching 7.1 million locations. The combined footprint offers a rare chance to target high-ROI expansions in underserved or fast-growing areas while making every mile of fiber more efficient. As hyperscalers shift investment from consumer broadband to AI and data centers, private operators are stepping up to expand high-quality internet, critical for digital equity and national connectivity. Beyond a corporate deal, this is a strategic fiber engineering project. How these networks are integrated, upgraded, and automated will define both service quality and the economics of U.S. fiber for years to come.

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Guy Lupo , thanks for your sponsorship to see Cequence Security welcomed into the TM Forum community—great to have Ameya Talwalkar and the team officially part of it! Looking forward to introducing new ideas from the portfolio where we see fit . #Partnerships with TM Forum are especially valuable - representing a global alliance of 800+ organizations ((including the top CSPs, hyperscalers, vendors, and integrators) driving collaboration on key standards (such as Open APIs), digital transformation, autonomous networks, composable IT, and responsible AI—unlocking interoperability, innovation, and growth across telecom and connectivity. #responsibleAI #futuregrowth

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🚀 Exit Fridays: Qualcomm's $2.4B Alphawave Bet - Building the AI Data Center of Tomorrow The Deal: In June 2025, Qualcomm announced its acquisition of UK-based Alphawave Semi for $2.4 billion in cash, marking a strategic push into AI-powered data centers. Alphawave shareholders will receive 183 pence per share—a stunning 96% premium over the company's March 31 closing price. Why It Matters: This isn't just another chip acquisition—it's Qualcomm's bold move to diversify beyond smartphones into the exploding AI infrastructure market. Alphawave's high-speed wired connectivity and compute technologies perfectly complement Qualcomm's power-efficient Oryon CPU and Hexagon NPU processors. The Strategic Fit: Alphawave specializes in chiplets—critical for enabling rapid data transfer in AI workloads. This gives Qualcomm access to full-stack AI deployments, from training and inference to networking and data storage across cloud and enterprise setups. Key Stats: 🎯 $21.9M in Q1 2025 royalties for Alphawave 🔥 Five new IP design wins in recent quarters 📈 Transaction expected to close Q1 2026 CEO Wisdom: "The combined teams share the goal of building advanced technology solutions and enabling next-level connected computing performance across a wide array of high-growth areas, including data center infrastructure." – Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO Lessons for Startups: Complement, don't compete: Alphawave's connectivity IP filled Qualcomm's data center gaps perfectly Timing matters: The AI infrastructure boom created urgent demand for specialized solutions Premium valuations reward scarcity: 96% premiums reflect how critical these technologies have become The Future: This acquisition positions Qualcomm to compete directly with Broadcom and Marvell in custom silicon while building on its recent move into Nvidia's NVLink ecosystem. As one analyst noted, this deal gives Qualcomm "a running start in a part of the market that's expanding quickly thanks to cloud providers and hyperscalers". Will hardware connectivity become the new moat in AI infrastructure? #ExitFridays #Qualcomm #AIInfrastructure #SemiconductorM&A #DataCenter

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Something remarkable is happening at the world’s oldest — and greatest — magazine. While many publications are struggling, The Spectator now has more subscribers than at any point in its nearly 200-year history. That starts, of course, with journalism. Under Michael Gove, the magazine has rediscovered a sense of surprise, intellectual confidence and mischief — reminding everyone that he was a journalist before he was a politician. Alongside a formidable existing bench of writers, new voices, expanding US coverage, a rapidly growing daily briefing, award-winning podcasts, live events, and the Spectator Club, the brand feels culturally alive in a way few legacy publications do. But there’s another, less visible reason for this growth: technology. When OQS acquired the magazine, it was clear that the biggest structural problem wasn’t demand for quality journalism — it was the plumbing underneath it. Like many publishers, The Spectator was stuck on ageing, expensive subscription “bureau” systems and a plethora of disconnected tech packages that frustrate readers, create friction at sign-up, and quietly drive churn. So we built our own. From scratch. Single-click checkout. Seamless billing. First-party data. Integrated marketing. In-house customer service. Retention tools designed around how real publishers operate. We call the platform CoEditor. From the moment it went live, subscriber trajectories across our titles turned upward. Not marginally — materially. It has been genuinely transformative. We’re now offering CoEditor to other subscription publishers who are serious about reducing churn, improving retention, and building sustainable reader revenue. But this isn’t just software. CoEditor was built inside a publishing group and is run by people who actively grow subscriptions every day. We bring the operators as well as the platform — marketing expertise, pricing strategy, retention playbooks, lifecycle campaigns, customer service frameworks and data analysis — all informed by what is actually working in-market right now. In other words, we don’t simply install technology and walk away. We partner. We execute. We help deliver measurable growth. If you’re a publisher looking not just for better tools, but for a team that knows how to use them to drive real results, Iet's talk! https://lnkd.in/eWaKFJ4v

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As AI workloads eat up global computing supply, DRAM prices are surging like never before—creating major challenges for teams trying to plan out their data center spend. One of my portfolio companies, Mext, is addressing the largest cost component in the datacenter: server memory (DRAM). From being on the board of Redis for the last twelve years, I’ve learned a lot about the various aspects of this problem and approaches to solving them. Mext found a breakthrough, using new AI techniques, for dramatically reducing the amount of server-DRAM required to run applications, all while maintaining performance. It intelligently manages the server’s memory, keeping hot pages (i.e., those in use by applications) in fast DRAM and offloading cold pages (i.e., those less used) to a much less expensive memory tier (e.g., NVMe Flash). Key to the approach is ensuring cold memory pages that are about to be accessed by an application are back in DRAM before the application needs them or notices that they were gone. This is done without modifications to the application or the OS – so it can run in the cloud or on-premise. Mext thus allows applications to either run using less DRAM or keep their DRAM footprint but do more with it. They're hosting a webinar along with Fred Weber (former CTO of AMD) on Jan 22nd at 10am pacific time. You can register here: https://lnkd.in/gXe9GCeE

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