Meter, Networking Start-Up, Raises $170 Million

As Silicon Valley has obsessed over artificial intelligence, significant attention has been paid to technology underpinning it: advanced computer chips, large language models and so on.

Less has been devoted to the pipes that help deliver A.I. — networking equipment.

But that has been changing, as companies and investors see the potential of improving relatively prosaic equipment like switches and access points to supercharge A.I. offerings. The latest sign is that Meter, a San Francisco-based start-up that sells packages of networking equipment, plans to announce on Thursday that it has raised $170 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion.

The round, which was led by the venture capital firm General Catalyst and includes backing from the likes of Microsoft and Sequoia Capital, is further evidence that for many in Silicon Valley, networking is becoming a hotter investment focus.

“Networking is an overlooked, yet crucial, aspect of the world’s tech infrastructure,” said Hemant Taneja, General Catalyst’s chief executive, who led the firm’s investment in Meter. “Networking spend is expected to grow massively in the next few years because of A.I. needs, and yet current networks are one of the biggest blockers” to growing A.I. computing power.

To be fair, networking is already a big business: Cisco, the heavyweight in the field, has a $254 billion market capitalization, while Arista Networks has a $118 billion market cap. Those incumbents haven’t been standing still either, with Cisco announcing this week that it was introducing a new generation of switches to keep up with huge data flows from A.I. services.

But Meter has drawn significant support — among its early backers were Sam Altman of OpenAI; Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder; and Diane Greene, the former Google Cloud chief executive — with its promise of a new business model for the networking business.