ChainThink report, March 11: According to Bloomberg, artificial intelligence infrastructure startup Nexthop AI has raised $500 million in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, part of the current wave of investment aimed at expanding AI compute capacity.

The company, which provides networking hardware and software for AI data centers, is now valued at $4.2 billion following this funding round, with Andreessen Horowitz also participating, alongside all existing investors including Altimeter Capital and Kleiner Perkins.

Nexthop was founded in 2024 by Anshul Sadana, former Chief Operating Officer of Arista Networks Inc. The company is developing networking systems for intra-data center and inter-data center connectivity. Sadana stated that the goal of their technology is to handle higher network traffic volumes with lower power consumption and reduced latency. Currently, the company is co-developing these networking systems with major data center operators to better meet their specific requirements.