Relativity Networks raises $4.6M to advance hollow core fiber development
What is hollow core fiber?
Developed to meet the heavy demands of AI workloads while also improving latency and connectivity, hollow core fiber technology is a type of optical fiber that guides light through a hollow central core instead of the solid glass or plastic core used in traditional optical fibers.
See other articles on hollow core fiber here:
· lyntia Networks, Nokia, OFS | Furukawa Solutions and Digital Realty conduct hollow core fiber tests
Relativity Networks, an emerging provider of hollow-core fiber, has raised $4.6 million in pre-seed funding to address the growing demand for data centers and their enormous power requirements.
Following the initial investment from company co-founder and CEO Jason Eichenholz, Relativity Networks raised pre-seed funding from private investors.
Eichenholz founded Relativity Networks in 2023 following his tenure at Luminar. The company is commercializing patent-pending HCF technology originally developed by co-founder Professor Rodrigo Amezcua at CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida.
While it did not identify specific names, it said it has already secured multimillion-dollar contracts and deployed its technology in several U.S. field installations.
Relativity Networks said its hollow-core fiber (HCF) cable is already being used to expand the number of data centers for cloud-computing hyperscalers.
It claims that HCF technology helps overcome a significant obstacle, limiting AI's growth, by transmitting data nearly 50% faster than conventional glass fiber.
Power crisis
Relativity Networks' timing can’t be any better, particularly as the data center industry could face a power crisis as new power-hungry data centers are built in the next few years.
The company said its technology could help the data industry meet that energy challenge by expanding development beyond urban cores and into locations with more abundant power.
According to energy research firm EPRI, by 2026, U.S. data centers will consume more than twice their current electricity usage, driven by the AI era’s insatiable data-processing needs.
What’s alarming is that industry forecasts suggest 40% of these facilities could face power shortages by 2027.
“Currently, new data centers can’t be built fast enough to satisfy the rapidly expanding AI-driven economy and the lack of available power is an existential threat to fueling that growth,’’ said Jason Eichenholz, Relativity Networks’ Founder and CEO. “By moving data faster with lower latency at nearly the speed of light, we are providing the industry new geographic optionality to address the energy-intensive data needs of today's AI-driven digital economy.”
Hollow core momentum
Momentum around hollow core fiber continues to rise.
Hollow-core fiber moves data faster with lower latency—less delay—than conventional fiber. That enables data to travel 1.5 times farther without impacting the latency that can throw intricate multi-location data operations and applications out of sync.
Unlike traditional fiber optic cables typically limit data centers to within 60 kilometers (37 miles) of each other due to latency constraints, Relativity Networks' HCF technology extends this range to 90 kilometers (56 miles). The company said this increased geographic flexibility allows organizations to strategically position their data centers closer to existing and emerging power sources.
Relativity Networks is hardly alone in driving the hollow core fiber trend.
In February 2024, Lyntia, Nokia, OFS | Furukawa Solutions, and Digital Realty (Interxion) completed a field trial to implement and demonstrate the potential of hollow core fiber technology.
Earlier in 2022, Microsoft revealed via a blog post that it had acquired Lumenisity Ltd., the UK-based developer of hollow-core fiber.
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About the Author
Sean BuckleySean Buckley
Sean is the Editor-in-Chief of Lightwave. He establishes and executes Lightwave's editorial strategy across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products. Before coming to Lightwave in July 2023, he served as editor of Broadband Communities. Earlier, he served as senior editor of FierceTelecom and the editor of the former Telecommunications Magazine. He got his start in the optical industry in 1998 when he became the editor of enterprise and optical networks at Information Gatekeepers. He has a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and lives in Dracut, Mass, with his wife, two sons, and his cat, Dove.
