The company’s light-based technology promises to enhance data centre efficiency. Oriole claims it can power AI model training up to 100 times faster while using a fraction of the power required by conventional hardware.
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“This is a booming market desperate for solutions and our ambition is to create an ecosystem of photonic networking that can reshape this industry by solving today’s bottlenecks and enabling greater competition at the GPU layer,” said James Regan, CEO of Oriole Networks. “Building on decades of research, we’re paving the way for faster, more efficient, more sustainable AI.”
Research from Rhodium Group suggests that if data centre demand triples by 2035 and a switch to renewable energy doesn’t come fast enough, it could lead to a 56% hike in energy emissions.
Oriole aims to develop technologies to prevent this from happening. Its networking solutions use light to process data, rather than electricity, meaning information can be processed at far faster speeds without losing signal strength.
While other photonic startups like Lightmatter focus on semiconductors, Oriole has opted for a different approach. By focusing on improving networking, the startup’s tech can speed up the time it takes for data centre hardware to train massive AI models, drastically reducing the amount of energy sites use up.
The startup is just a year old, but packs a lot of experience, with CEO Regan having previously built Effect Photonics, a startup that designed photonic optical systems for faster data transfer capabilities.
Oriole hopes to have its early-stage products in the hands of customers by 2025. The company is backed by professionals operating high-performance clusters, including the venture arm of XTX Markets, which operates one of the largest GPU clusters in the world.
Early-stage investment fund Plural led the funding round, with existing investors UCL Technology Fund, XTX Ventures, Clean Growth Fund, and Dorilton Ventures reinvesting.
“Applying 20 years of deep research and learning in photonics to create a better AI infrastructure demonstrates how much more innovation there is to come to help reap the benefits of this technology,” said Ian Hogarth, partner at Plural.
“The team behind Oriole Networks have proven experience in both company building and bringing deep science to commercialisation and are creating a fundamental shift in the design of next-generation networked systems that will reduce latency and slash the energy impact of data centres on which we now rely.”
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