AI networking firm Aria Networks raises $125 million in funding

April 7 (Reuters) - Aria Networks said on Tuesday it has raised $125 million in its first series funding round, as the startup seeks to develop its AI networking infrastructure to meet the soaring demand for capacity amid the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence.

Aria's network is designed to work with any AI chip on the market, including those from Nvidia NVDA.O and Google GOOGL.O, giving companies the flexibility to upgrade or switch hardware over time without overhauling their entire network infrastructure.

Founded in 2025, Aria Networks is backed by Sutter Hill Ventures, Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, and Eclipse Ventures.

Gavin Baker, managing partner at Atreides, has joined Aria’s board, along with Stefan Dyckerhoff of Sutter Hill and Aria's founders.

The company also announced the availability of what it calls the world's first AI-native network, built to help AI data centers run more efficiently and at lower cost. Its core focus is "token efficiency", a measure of a data center's AI output relative to its running costs.

Proceeds from the Series A funding round will be used to build this so-called 'Networks that Think', the company said.

Tokens are a measure of how much text an AI model can process or remember during a single interaction. A token roughly corresponds to a short piece of text, such as part of a word.

Palo Alto-based Aria said it already has customer orders in hand and is actively deploying.