AI network startup Eridu emerges from stealth with hefty $200M Series A

Source: TechCrunch

Background

Drew Perkins has been inventing computer network technology and building startups since the dawn of the internet age. He began his career in the 1980s, helping create the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), a key part of TCP/IP. In 1999, the optical‑switch company he co‑founded, Lightera Networks, was sold to Ciena for over $500 million. He later co‑founded Infinera, which IPO’d and was sold to Nokia for $2.3 billion in 2025, as well as Gainspeed (also sold to Nokia) and the AR startup Mojo Vision.

The Conversation that Sparked Eridu

After OpenAI released ChatGPT, Perkins had an epiphany. In February 2023, while speaking at a small conference with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Altman noted that the breakthrough behind ChatGPT was “enormous amounts of compute,” estimating the need for 4,000 GPUs at the time—a number that has since grown to millions. Perkins realized that the bottleneck to AI progress would not just be more chips, but the methods those chips use to communicate.

“What we needed to do in the networking sector was come up with a brand‑new way of thinking about how you build networks and network equipment, network chips, and the entire thing.” – Drew Perkins

Founding Eridu

By late 2023, Perkins met co‑founder Omar Hassen, whose background is in networking chip design for industry leaders such as Broadcom and Marvell. In 2024 they founded Eridu, an AI‑focused networking startup emerging from stealth.

Eridu is rethinking computer networking from the silicon up, designing new chips that integrate more networking functionality. The company plans to sell complete systems that occupy the same role in AI data centers as traditional network gear (e.g., Arista Networks) does in classic data centers. These systems aim to replace many tiered optical connections with on‑chip communications, reducing hops, latency, power consumption, and cost.

“GPU compute and memory bandwidth are improving by roughly 10× per year, while data‑center switches from Broadcom, Marvell, Cisco, etc., are still only improving 2–3× every 2–3 years.” – Drew Perkins

Funding Round

Eridu announced an oversubscribed $200 million Series A round, bringing its total funding to $230 million. The round was led by Socratic Partners, John Doerr, Matter Venture Partners, and others.

Key investors include:

• Wen Hsieh (founding managing partner of Matter Venture Partners, former Kleiner Perkins China lead)
• John Doerr (Kleiner Perkins)
• Hudson River Trading
• Capricorn Investment Group
• SBVA
• MediaTek
• Bosch Ventures
• TDK Ventures
• Eclipse
• VentureTech Alliance (an investing vehicle of TSMC)

Perkins described the fundraising experience as “my phone has been ringing off the hook,” noting that the round was heavily oversubscribed. He declined to comment on valuation specifics or whether Eridu has achieved unicorn status, but emphasized his desire for the roughly 100 employees to benefit from stock options.

Outlook

If Eridu can deliver on its promise of AI‑friendly networking chips and systems, it will sit at the heart of the largest data‑center build‑out in history. The founders’ deep experience—spanning PPP, optical switches, and high‑performance networking—sets them apart in a landscape often dominated by less seasoned teams. This expertise bodes well for the company’s future.