Networking Veteran Launches AI Infrastructure Company with $200 Million Funding Round

A seasoned technology entrepreneur with decades of experience in network infrastructure has launched a new artificial intelligence-focused company that secured a substantial $200 million Series A funding round.

Drew Perkins, whose career spans back to the early days of internet development, has established Eridu as his latest venture alongside co-founder Omar Hassen. The company officially announced its emergence from stealth mode following the successful completion of its oversubscribed funding round, bringing total capital raised to $230 million.

Perkins brings extensive credentials to the venture, having contributed to fundamental internet protocols in the 1980s and subsequently building multiple successful companies. His portfolio includes Lightera Networks, which was acquired by Ciena for more than $500 million in 1999, and Infinera, which went public before being purchased by Nokia for $2.3 billion in 2025. Additional ventures include Gainspeed, also acquired by Nokia, and augmented reality company Mojo Vision.

The AI Networking Challenge

The inspiration for Eridu emerged from a conversation between Perkins and OpenAI’s Sam Altman at a conference in February 2023. During their discussion, Altman emphasized how massive computational resources—initially thousands of GPUs, now scaling to millions—enable advanced AI systems like ChatGPT.

This exchange led Perkins to identify a critical infrastructure bottleneck: as AI systems grow increasingly complex, the communication pathways between processing units become the limiting factor rather than the chips themselves. Traditional networking approaches, he realized, would be inadequate for the scale of AI computation on the horizon.

The solution, according to Perkins, requires a fundamental reimagining of network architecture, starting with silicon-level design. Eridu is developing specialized chips that integrate networking functions directly, reducing the need for external optical connections that create latency and reliability issues.

Revolutionary Network Architecture

Eridu’s approach involves creating complete systems designed specifically for AI data centers, positioning itself as an alternative to traditional network equipment providers like Arista Networks. The company’s technology consolidates multiple networking functions onto individual chips, eliminating many of the multi-tiered optical connections that characterize current data center designs.

Current networking infrastructure requires adding additional hardware boxes as capacity needs grow, creating multiple data transmission hops that increase latency—the delay users experience between submitting queries and receiving responses. Eridu’s integrated approach aims to reduce power consumption, lower costs, and improve reliability by minimizing dependence on optical components, which represent the most failure-prone elements in network systems.

The performance gap Eridu seeks to address is significant: while GPU processing power and memory bandwidth improve approximately tenfold annually, traditional data center switches from established manufacturers advance only two to three times every few years.

Investment and Market Opportunity

The funding round attracted participation from prominent investors including Socratic Partners, renowned venture capitalist John Doerr, and Matter Venture Partners. Additional participants included Hudson River Trading, Capricorn Investment Group, SBVA, MediaTek, Bosch Ventures, TDK Ventures, Eclipse, and VentureTech Alliance, an investment arm of semiconductor manufacturing giant TSMC.

The investment interest was sparked through Perkins’ existing relationships in the venture capital community, particularly with Wen Hsieh of Matter Venture Partners, who subsequently introduced the opportunity to John Doerr. This connection triggered significant investor interest, with Perkins describing the fundraising process as generating overwhelming demand.

While Perkins declined to disclose specific valuation details, he indicated the figure aligns with comparable Series A rounds of similar magnitude and expressed satisfaction with the terms for his approximately 100 employees’ equity positions.

Timing and Market Position

Eridu enters the market during an unprecedented expansion of AI infrastructure, positioning itself at the center of what many consider the largest data center construction boom in history. The company’s success will depend on its ability to deliver on promises of revolutionary AI-optimized networking technology.

The venture benefits from the founders’ extensive industry experience—a quality that has become increasingly valuable in Silicon Valley’s current environment. Co-founder Omar Hassen brings specialized expertise in networking chip design from major industry players including Broadcom and Marvell, complementing Perkins’ broader entrepreneurial and technical background.