Astera Labs IPO: A New Milestone in Driving Innovation with Intel Capital
At Intel Capital, our mission is to invest in the future of compute, fostering innovation and driving technological advancements that shape the world around us. One of our most remarkable partnerships has been with Astera Labs, a company that has grown from a team of 25-30 individuals when we first invested to a thriving organization with 265 employees.
A Shared Journey of Growth and Success
Our relationship with Astera Labs dates back to 2018, when we first collaborated with its founders, Jitendra, Sanjay, and Casey. From the outset, we shared a joint vision of enabling AI in the Cloud, and our partnership has been a testament to the power of aligning strategic goals and leveraging collective expertise. At Intel Capital, our belief in the AI opportunity and putting our full weight behind entrepreneurs and companies runs deep.
Being a force multiplier for the companies we invest in
As Astera Labs celebrates its recent IPO, we at Intel Capital are incredibly proud of the achievements we have accomplished together. This milestone is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and unwavering commitment of both teams, and it serves as a shining example of how great companies can be built through strategic partnerships and shared values. Over the past six years, our partnership has been marked by hundreds of touchpoints and programmatic engagements, each contributing to the success of Astera Labs. However, one standout highlight has been the Intel Capital Embedded Expert Program (ExP), which has played a pivotal role in fostering innovation and driving technological advancements. As Kalyan Mulan, SVP of ASIC engineering at Astera Labs succinctly put it ‘we were able to accomplish highly technical feats in record breaking time’. And product development speed, the ability to jointly master hard engineering challenges faster than anyone else, is the ultimate foundation for driving business success for start-ups like Astera Labs.
Through this program, we have also worked closely with Astera Labs to showcase their cutting-edge innovations at numerous Intel Innovation events. One notable example is the demonstration of CXL® memory expansion using Astera Labs' industry-leading Leo CXL Smart Memory Controllers. By running real-world workloads and comparing performance benchmarks for direct attach memory versus CXL attach memory implementation for large in-memory applications, we have showcased the transformative potential of Astera Labs' solutions.
Astera Labs and Intel have also collaborated closely on the development of Intel’s PCIe Retimer supplemental specification which now extends to the latest PCIe 6.x standard with their recent Aries 6 introduction. We applaud Astera Labs for their contributions to enabling the PCIe/CXL ecosystem, which will accelerate the rollout of Generative AI deployments at cloud-scale.
Building Great Companies: The Value of Intel Capital
At Intel Capital, we are committed to adding value to our portfolio companies, and our partnership with Astera Labs exemplifies this commitment. As we look to the future, we remain steadfast in our vision of investing in the future of compute. Our partnership with Astera Labs serves as a shining example of how strategic collaborations can drive innovation, foster growth, and create lasting impact in the technology landscape.
