Upscale AI Valuation Tops $1 Billion as Startup Takes on Cisco

Upscale AI Inc., a networking startup seeking to challenge Cisco Systems Inc. and Broadcom Inc., raised $200 million in a funding round that values the company at more than $1 billion.

The round was led by Tiger Global Management, Premji Invest and Xora Innovation, Upscale said on Wednesday. Other investors included Maverick Silicon, StepStone Group, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures. The fundraising comes four months after the Santa Clara, California-based company announced a $100 million seed round.

Upscale aims to develop networking equipment that can better cope with the onslaught of artificial intelligence data. Cloud-computing systems that train and run AI programs currently struggle ...