Plural, led by Ian Hogarth, invests £16.9m in Oriole Networks.
- Oriole Networks utilises photonics for efficient AI training.
- The London-based startup emerged from University College London.
- Investment aims to tackle energy demands in AI data centres.
- Oriole Networks sees potential in photonic networking for AI.
Plural, an investment group led by Ian Hogarth, has made a notable financial commitment of £16.9m to Oriole Networks, a London-based startup. This investment is part of a total $35m raised by the company in 2023.
Oriole Networks, founded as a spinout from University College London, is pioneering innovations in artificial intelligence by harnessing photonics technology. This approach is aimed at enhancing the speed and sustainability of generative AI.
The company asserts that its photonics-based networks can speed up the training of large language models by up to 100 times while using significantly less power compared to traditional methods. This development is crucial as energy consumption remains a significant hurdle for the scalability of AI technologies in data centres.
Ian Hogarth, renowned for his contributions to AI policy and industry advancements, emphasised the innovative nature of Oriole Networks’ photonics approach. He noted that utilising decades of research could bring substantial improvements to AI infrastructure.
Involvement of existing investors such as UCL Technology Fund and XTX Ventures underlines the confidence in Oriole Networks’ vision of using photonic networking to address current computational bottlenecks.
Oriole Networks CEO, James Regan, highlighted the company’s ambition to reshape the industry by creating a competitive ecosystem at the GPU level through photonic innovations.
The investment in Oriole Networks marks a significant step forward in addressing AI infrastructure challenges through innovative technology.
