Kandou AI Unveiled Chord Signalling for Copper Links
Edited by Debra John — April 7, 2026 — Tech
This article was written with the assistance of AI.
References: thenextweb
Kandou AI, a Swiss chip-interconnect company, announced a $225 million funding round to commercialize Chord signalling, a serialisation technique designed to boost copper chip-to-chip bandwidth while cutting power. The company repositioned from Kandou Bus and appointed Srujan Linga as CEO in 2025, with Chord remaining the underlying technology developed by founder Amin Shokrollahi.
Chord works by sending correlated signals across multiple wires to raise effective throughput and extend link reach; Kandou reports performance gains that target hundreds of gigabits per second and reduced energy per bit. Strategic investors including Synopsys, Cadence, Alchip and SoftBank join the round, signaling potential EDA integration, manufacturing pathways and AI-infrastructure distribution.
For data-center operators and chip designers, Chord could postpone costly optical upgrades by improving existing copper runs, lowering system cost and power consumption.
The approach matters now as AI clusters strain interconnects, offering a pragmatic alternative that leverages installed cabling while the industry evaluates optical transitions.
Image Credit: Kandou AI
Chord works by sending correlated signals across multiple wires to raise effective throughput and extend link reach; Kandou reports performance gains that target hundreds of gigabits per second and reduced energy per bit. Strategic investors including Synopsys, Cadence, Alchip and SoftBank join the round, signaling potential EDA integration, manufacturing pathways and AI-infrastructure distribution.
For data-center operators and chip designers, Chord could postpone costly optical upgrades by improving existing copper runs, lowering system cost and power consumption.
The approach matters now as AI clusters strain interconnects, offering a pragmatic alternative that leverages installed cabling while the industry evaluates optical transitions.
Image Credit: Kandou AI
Copper vs optical: next interconnect move
Helps plan near-term interconnect upgrades: whether to extend copper, evaluate new signaling/IP, or move to optics; informs content focus and sponsor targeting across data center, AI cluster, and chip design audiences.
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When was the last time you upgraded a high-speed interconnect in production?
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For your next upgrade, how likely are you to extend copper before moving to optics?
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Which are you more likely to evaluate in the next 2 weeks for higher bandwidth links?
Trend Themes
1. Copper High-bandwidth Signalling - By encoding correlated signals across parallel wires, this approach enables hundreds of gigabits per second over existing copper while lowering energy per bit, offering a pragmatic alternative to immediate optical upgrades.
2. Eda-industry Integration - Close financial and strategic ties between EDA vendors and interconnect startups create pathways for integrated design flows that natively support advanced signalling primitives.
3. AI-driven Interconnect Strain - Escalating bandwidth demands from AI clusters increase the value of solutions that extend installed-cable lifetimes by improving throughput and reducing system-level power.
Industry Implications
1. Data Center Networking - Operators may realize lower capital and operating expenses through higher-performance copper links that defer fiber upgrades and cut rack-to-rack power consumption.
2. Semiconductor IP and Chip Design - Chip designers could integrate correlated-signal serializers as IP to boost package- and board-level bandwidth density while simplifying multi-chip link architectures.
3. Electronic Design Automation - EDA toolchains that incorporate modelling and verification for multiwire correlated signalling would reduce integration risk and accelerate deployment timelines.
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