Chip startup Celestial AI has raised US$250 million in its latest funding round, bringing its total funding to US$515 million.

The funding round was led by Fidelity Management & Research, with participation from investors like BlackRock, Maverick Capital, Tiger Global Management, and Lip-Bu Tan, former CEO of Cadence Design Systems

The company is developing photonics technology to improve data transfer speeds between AI chips and memory chips.

Photonics utilizes light instead of electrical signals. This approach addresses memory bandwidth limitations that impact AI performance.

Memory bandwidth has become crucial enough to be considered in US government export controls designed to limit China’s AI development.