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

Eridu, an AI networking startup co-founded by veteran networking engineer Drew Perkins, has emerged from stealth with a $200M Series A round led by Socratic Partners, John Doerr, and Matter Venture Partners, bringing total funding to $230M. The company is rethinking data center networking from the silicon level up, designing new chips that integrate more networking functionality on-chip to reduce latency, power consumption, and cost for AI workloads. Perkins argues that GPU compute is improving ~10x per year while traditional data center switches only improve 2-3x every 2-3 years, creating a critical bottleneck. Eridu aims to replace traditional tiered optical networking in AI data centers with on-chip communications, targeting the role currently filled by vendors like Arista Networks.