DriveNets, an Israeli company that makes networking software and Ethernet fabrics for large AI clusters, said on 1 June 2026 that it had raised $410m in a Series D round. The round brought its total funding to about $1bn.
Bessemer Venture Partners and Atreides Management led the round. AMD and Red Dot Capital joined as new investors, and existing backers Pitango and D1 Capital Partners also took part.
DriveNets did not disclose a valuation. Calcalist and Globes both reported that the round valued the company at $8.5bn. Globes said that made DriveNets Israel's second most valuable privately held company after VAST Data.
“The most expensive idle asset in the world right now is a GPU waiting on the network.”Ido Susan, CEO and Co-Founder, DriveNets
What DriveNets does
DriveNets started out selling Network Cloud, software that lets telecom operators run large networks on standard hardware. Its tier-one operator customers include AT&T and Comcast, and Calcalist reported that the software is widely used in AT&T's core network.
The company now also sells an Ethernet-based fabric that connects GPUs in AI data centres, within a rack, across a cluster and between sites. It said its customers include foundation model labs, so-called neoclouds and large enterprises, without naming them, and that it works with AMD, Broadcom, Dell and Supermicro.
Converge Digest reported that the company is aiming its AI fabric at hyperscalers, foundation model developers, neocloud providers and large enterprises, offering Ethernet as an alternative to the InfiniBand networks that many GPU clusters use.
DriveNets was founded in 2015 and is based in Ra'anana, according to Converge Digest. Its founders are Ido Susan, the chief executive, and Hillel Kobrinsky, its chief strategy officer. Calcalist reported that Susan previously founded Intucell, which Cisco bought in 2013 for $475m. The company did not disclose its headcount.
Who invested
Bessemer has backed DriveNets since its Series A, the company said. Globes reported that Adam Fisher, Bessemer's Israel partner, and Gavin Baker of Atreides represent the two lead investors. AMD, which Globes said had begun working with DriveNets, invested as a strategic backer.
Calcalist reported that in July 2025 AT&T bought $650m of DriveNets shares from employees and investors, and that the company was considering another secondary transaction later this year.
What the money is for
Adam Fisher, a partner at Bessemer, said every shift in computing produces a new networking leader. Vamsi Boppana, AMD's senior vice president of AI, said AI infrastructure was moving towards open, integrated systems in which compute, networking and software scale together, and Charlie Kawwas of Broadcom said open Ethernet was becoming the foundation of the next generation of AI data centres.
DriveNets said it would use the money to build up inventory for a growing pipeline of AI fabric projects and to expand what it calls its heterogeneous AI infrastructure products. The company said it has more than $1bn in secured business and has been cash-flow positive since 2025. It did not report revenue.
In the announcement, the analyst firm 650 Group forecast that spending on AI networking would pass $200bn by the end of the decade. Susan argued that idle GPUs held up by slow networks are now the most expensive waste in AI data centres.
Company website: drivenets.com