Ayar Labs Strengthens Leadership Team and Expands Global Presence to Accelerate High Volume Co-Packaged Optics

Company appoints Marvell veteran, Vivek Khanzodé, as new VP of Engineering; expands U.S. and Taiwan operations to support high-volume growth

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ayar Labs, a pioneer in co-packaged optics (CPO) for large-scale AI workloads, today announced the expansion of its leadership team with Vivek Khanzodé joining the company as VP of Engineering. To support its efforts in high-volume manufacturing and CPO adoption, the company also announced the opening of a new office in Taiwan and that it has doubled the size of its San Jose headquarters. These milestones bolster its mission of transforming AI connectivity with optical interconnects.

“As the industry accelerates its shift toward CPO solutions, we are taking decisive steps to ensure Ayar Labs leads this market transition," said Mark Wade, Ayar Labs’ co-founder and CEO. “Expanding in Taiwan places us at the center of the global semiconductor ecosystem, allowing us to access world-class talent and deepen partnerships with key industry players. Combined with the expertise of leaders like Vivek, we are ready to deliver the solutions customers need to revolutionize next-generation AI infrastructure.”

Khanzodé joins from Marvell Technology, Inc., where he led the company’s pre- and post-silicon validation for products that shipped in the hundreds of millions annually. A visionary semiconductor executive with more than 30 years of engineering leadership experience, Khanzodé’s deep expertise in scaling complex semiconductor products will be instrumental as Ayar Labs builds toward high-volume manufacturing and commercial adoption.

In addition, the company recently opened a new office in Hsinchu, Taiwan, which plays a critical role in advanced chip manufacturing. This will enable Ayar Labs to closely collaborate with the local Taiwan semiconductor ecosystem and leverage the region’s exceptional talent pool. Scott Clark, who joined as the company’s VP of Manufacturing & Operations nearly three years ago, will expand his role to include oversight of the company’s operations in Taiwan. Clark will be based in Taiwan.

The expansion of Ayar Labs’ leadership team and global presence comes at a momentous time for the company. Its industry-first UCIe™ optical interconnect chiplet for CPO, unveiled earlier this year, eliminates data bottlenecks by maximizing AI infrastructure performance and efficiency while reducing latency and power consumption. In addition, Ayar Labs secured $155 million in Series D funding from AMD, Intel Capital, NVIDIA, and others to address the need for scalable, cost-effective AI infrastructure.

Ayar Labs will be hiring for a number of engineering and related roles in the U.S. and Taiwan. To learn more about current career opportunities, visit ayarlabs.com/careers.

About Ayar Labs

Ayar Labs, a leader in optical engines for co-packaged optics, is transforming AI infrastructure by accelerating data movement in scale-up networks. Its industry-first optical I/O solution enables customers to maximize compute efficiency and performance while reducing costs, latency, and power consumption. Based on open standards and optimized for AI training and inference, Ayar Labs’ optical interconnect solutions are backed by a robust ecosystem to easily integrate into AI systems at scale. Ayar Labs was founded in 2015 and is funded by domestic and international venture capital firms, as well as strategic investors including AMD, Applied Ventures, GlobalFoundries, Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, Intel Capital, and NVIDIA. For more information, visit www.ayarlabs.com.