Oriole Networks is looking to address one of AI’s biggest challenges – speed, latency and sustainability – by using light, via advanced photonics technology, to create networks of AI chips and combine their processing power.
With this approach, LLMs can be trained up to a 100x faster, whilst consuming a fraction of power, allowing algorithms to run with much lower latency.
Oriole’s technology will help to dramatically reduce the energy consumption of data centres which is putting a huge strain on energy grids in both the US and Europe. If data centre demand triples by 2035, as expected, and developers struggle to install new wind and solar, power sector emissions could be more than 56 per cent higher than forecast, according to research by Rhodium Group.
Founded in 2023 out of University College London (UCL), Oriole Networks brings together pioneering science in optical networks, with first-hand founder experience from a tech entrepreneur who has built major businesses in the sector.
The company’s CEO James Regan, who built EFFECT Photonics, has put together an experienced commercial team to bring the technology and unique IP developed over two decades at UCL by founding scientists Professor George Zervas, Alessandro Ottino, and Joshua Benjamin to a sector that is looking for a solution to its sustainability problems.
Ian Hogarth, who led the investment on behalf of Plural, will be joining the board to help support the team through this crucial scaling phase.
AI’s energy consumption problem is well known with a report published in September suggesting that ChatGPT alone uses enough energy to power the entire country of Gibraltar for a year. A single ChatGPT query uses >25x more energy than a Google search, according to research from Stanford University. At the same time, AI computing power is doubling every 100 days and is set to increase by more than a million times in the next five years.
This latest funding takes the total raised by Oriole Networks this year to $35 million and will be used to increase Oriole’s development activity by expanding its team and engaging with high-volume suppliers. By 2025, it plans to have its early-stage products in the hands of customers, creating an ecosystem of photonic networking for AI.
Commenting Regan said, “This funding is yet another milestone for Oriole following a year of rapid pace and growth. 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. Building on decades of research, we’re paving the way for faster, more efficient, more sustainable AI.”
“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.”
