Ayar Labs named Sankara Venkateswaran as Vice President of Engineering, strengthening its leadership team as it pushes co-packaged optics (CPO) into high-volume production for hyperscale AI infrastructure. The San Jose–based company is commercializing optical I/O technology designed to replace traditional copper interconnects in AI scale-up architectures.
Venkateswaran will lead engineering for Ayar Labs’ TeraPHY optical engines, overseeing architecture, silicon design, and product execution. He previously served as Vice President of Foundational Networking Silicon Engineering at Intel, where he led global teams developing Ethernet controllers and networking SoCs for hyperscale and enterprise customers. His background also includes engineering leadership roles at Qualcomm and Atheros Communications, with experience delivering multiple tape-outs across advanced process nodes and foundries.
The hire comes as Ayar Labs expands partnerships with packaging and ASIC ecosystem players including Alchip and Global Unichip Corporation (GUC). The company positions its CPO platform as a solution to bandwidth density, power efficiency, and signal integrity constraints that limit copper-based interconnects in large GPU clusters. Ayar Labs counts strategic investors such as AMD, Intel Capital, and NVIDIA among its backers.
- Sankara Venkateswaran appointed VP of Engineering
- Former Intel VP of Foundational Networking Silicon Engineering
- Will lead development of TeraPHY optical engines
- Focus on scaling CPO for hyperscale AI scale-up architectures
- Builds on partnerships with Alchip and GUC
- Ayar Labs founded in 2015; backed by AMD, Intel Capital, NVIDIA and others
“Co-packaged optics is rapidly moving from early innovation to infrastructure necessity,” said Venkateswaran. “My focus is on delivering the most performant, compatible, and manufacturing-ready CPO solution for AI scale-up to overcome the bandwidth and power limitations of copper.”
Analysis: Ayar Labs’ executive hire aligns with the broader shift toward optical interconnects in AI data centers, where copper links struggle to meet power and reach requirements as GPU clusters scale into the tens of thousands of accelerators. Competitors and ecosystem players—including major switch silicon vendors and hyperscalers—continue to evaluate CPO, linear pluggable optics (LPO), and advanced 1.6T interconnect strategies, positioning 2026–2027 as a potential inflection point for production deployments. Ayar Labs’ emphasis on manufacturability and integration into advanced packaging flows reflects growing industry focus on yield, thermal management, and supply chain readiness as CPO transitions from prototype to volume.
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