Relativity Networks raises $22m and lands $40m hyperscaler order for hollow-core fiber

Relativity Networks, an Orlando-based manufacturer of hollow-core fiber (HCF) cable, has closed a $22 million SAFE investment round and secured a $40 million follow-on contract from a leading hyperscaler. The company, founded by Jason Eichenholz, said the capital raise more than doubled its target, reflecting growing demand for its low-latency optical technology designed for AI data center networks.

The announcements come on the heels of a manufacturing milestone with Italian cable maker Prysmian. Last month, the two companies said they had produced their highest-density hollow-core fiber cable to date, integrating Relativity's ChronoCore fibers into a 24-fiber, 10-millimeter cable. In field trials with Dura-Line, the cable was deployed reliably in standard microducts, confirming its readiness for real-world installation.

Hollow-core fiber is considered a potential step-change over traditional fiber-optic cabling. Instead of a solid glass core, HCF uses an air-filled channel surrounded by a ring of glass tubes, resembling a honeycomb pattern. This architecture reduces chromatic dispersion and allows light to travel significantly faster, extending the practical distance between data centers and power sources from roughly 60 kilometers to up to 90 kilometers — a critical advantage as AI workloads push infrastructure across wider geographies.

Relativity's new $22m SAFE round was drawn from new investors including Rhapsody Venture Partners, Bell Ventures Inc., and Faster Than Glass LLC. The company separately confirmed a $40m follow-on order from an unnamed hyperscaler that recently tested ChronoCore technology linking two data centers.

"AI is no longer scaling inside a data center. It is scaling across geography," said Eichenholz, founder and CEO of Relativity Networks. "The next great AI infrastructure challenge is making thousands of distributed GPUs behave like one machine, even when the power they depend on is miles apart. ChronoCore is purpose-built for that world, giving hyperscalers the low-latency connectivity needed to scale AI wherever power is available."

ChronoCore fiber is manufactured at Prysmian's facility in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and cabled at its plant in Claremont, North Carolina. Coupler production, fiber characterization, and installation training are conducted in Orlando, Florida. The partnership with Prysmian is centered on scaling production capacity to meet hyperscaler demand for AI-driven connectivity.

The technology's importance lies in its ability to overcome power availability constraints that increasingly dictate where AI data centers can be built. By extending the distance over which low-latency connections can operate, HCF gives operators far more flexibility in site selection.

"Relativity Networks changes where AI infrastructure can be built," said Carsten Boers, managing partner at Rhapsody Venture Partners. "Power availability is the key constraint on data center placement. ChronoCore carries light roughly 47 percent faster than solid-core glass fibers, so distributed sites can sit that much farther apart within the same latency budget — more than doubling the area an operator can build in. It's deployed today, validated with partners like Prysmian, and the order book is well ahead of our expectations."