Celero Communications raises $140M led by Alphabet’s CapitalG to build AI networking chips

Celero Communications, a semiconductor startup barely a year old, has raised $140 million in total funding, with a $100 million Series B round led by Alphabet’s growth fund CapitalG. The company is building coherent digital signal processor chips purpose-built for AI data centers, targeting the increasingly painful problem of moving data between GPU clusters separated by real physical distance. The Irvine, California-based company, which employs roughly 30 people according to PitchBook, announced the funding on November 17, 2025. Earlier seed and Series A rounds brought in $40 million from Sutter Hill Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, and Maverick Silicon. What Celero actually builds Coherent DSP chips translate optical signals into electrical signals and back again, allowing data to travel long distances over fiber optic cables. Celero’s pitch is that existing telecom-grade coherent DSPs are overbuilt for data center distances while short-reach alternatives can’t cover the gaps between buildings in a campus-scale AI cluster. The company is designing chips that sit in the sweet spot: optimized for the specific distances, bandwidth demands, and power envelopes th...