PicoJool, which is developing AI data center interconnects based on vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, raised a $27.5M Series A led by Socratic Partners (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE)

PicoJool’s $27.5M Series A signals continued investor confidence in new AI networking infrastructure aimed at relieving data center interconnect bottlenecks as AI workloads scale. For CIOs and technology leaders, the strategic takeaway is that high-speed, lower-power connectivity is becoming a critical enabler of AI capacity, efficiency, and time-to-scale, which means IT organizations should begin planning for next-generation interconnect options alongside compute and storage upgrades.