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Economy

Relativity Networks raises $22 million to bring a faster kind of fiber to data centers

Relativity Networks Inc secured US$22 million (RM103 million) in a SAFE-note round led by Rhapsody Venture Partners and Bell Ventures Inc, plus a RM187 million follow-on order from an unnamed hyperscaler, the company said on Tuesday.

Source: TechCrunch · August 19, 2026 at 11:51 AM · AI-assisted report

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Relativity Networks raises $22 million to bring a faster kind of fiber to data centers
Image: techcrunch.com

KUALA LUMPUR, 19 AUGUST 2026 —

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Relativity Networks Inc secured US$22 million (RM103 million) in a SAFE-note round led by Rhapsody Venture Partners and Bell Ventures Inc, plus a RM187 million follow-on order from an unnamed hyperscaler, the company said on Tuesday.

Market Impact

The funding will bankroll commercial trials of Relativity’s hollow-core fibre, which transmits light through a vacuum core instead of glass to cut latency by roughly 30%. Chief executive Jason Eisenholz told TechCrunch that a kilometre of conventional fibre takes about five microseconds to carry a signal, while the hollow-core version takes three and a half microseconds.

The speed-up is a fraction of a millisecond per kilometre, Eisenholz said, but matters when data centres sprawl across hundreds of acres and multiple buildings. He said the technology lets operators knit separate campuses into a single synchronized machine by reducing the penalties of geographic spread. “The largest systems are distributing the compute across multiple campuses to reach the power that exists,” he said.

“They’re moving to where the warm shell is, but they still need to operate as one synchronized machine.”

Hollow-core fibre dates back decades but has rarely been deployed at scale. Relativity’s financing follows a broader industry push to shave microseconds from networks as AI workloads push compute across larger footprints. The combined US$62 million will fund commercial trials and early deployments.

AI and hyperscale developers have already placed orders, according to the company. The unnamed hyperscaler’s US$40 million commitment is a forward purchase that converts into equity once Relativity closes its first priced round.

Relativity’s timing coincides with a surge in global data-centre spending that Bank of America estimates will top US$4 trillion by 2030. Most new sites are constrained by power-grid capacity and local regulations, making latency-focused upgrades attractive.

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Reporting based on TechCrunch. Figures and claims are subject to revision as the story develops. DomainFork publishes editorial context, not investment advice — see our editorial standards.