Upscale AI Raises $190M Series A-1 at $2B Valuation to Build Open GPU Networking Standard Challenging Cisco and Nvidia

Upscale AI has closed a $190 million Series A-1 led by Premji Invest at a $2 billion valuation—reaching $500 million in total funding in under 18 months—to build an open-standard networking fabric allowing GPUs from different manufacturers to communicate efficiently within AI data centers. Backed by Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, Temasek, Tiger Global, and Mayfield, Upscale targets the AI switch market projected to exceed $100 billion annually by 2030 while competing directly with Nvidia's proprietary networking stack; its open standard counts AMD, Intel, Google, Meta, and Microsoft among 80-plus backers. Rival Nexthop AI raised $500 million at a $4.2 billion valuation in March 2026, signaling the intensity of the open-networking race.