Sankara Venkateswaran
Vice President of Engineering
Lonergan Partners is pleased to announce that Sankara Venkateswaran has been appointed Vice President of Engineering at Ayar Labs, the leader in co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions for AI scale-up. A former Intel networking silicon leader, Sankara joins Ayar Labs at a pivotal stage as the company scales its solution for mass production to support hyperscale AI workloads. This appointment was the result of a global search process led by Co-Managing Partners Michael Cunningham and Kirsten Settle.
About Sankara
Sankara will lead Ayar Labs’ engineering organization developing the company’s TeraPHY™ optical engines, overseeing architecture, design, and product execution. With experience delivering end-to-end silicon products for networking controllers, he brings a disciplined focus on efficiency, predictability, and quality, which are critical to serving hyperscale customers who require production-grade silicon that integrates seamlessly into advanced packaging flows.
Sankara has more than 26 years of experience delivering mobile, compute, networking, and infrastructure silicon products, with engineering and leadership roles at Atheros, Qualcomm, and Intel. He led multiple product programs and contributed to successful tape-outs across a range of leading-edge process nodes and foundries. At Intel, he served as Vice President of Foundational Networking Silicon Engineering, leading global teams developing Ethernet controllers and networking SoCs for hyperscale and enterprise customers under aggressive timelines.
Sankara's appointment builds on Ayar Labs’ momentum–including recent partnerships with Alchip and GUC–as the company scales its co-packaged optics solution for high-volume deployment. The company continues to lead the transition from traditional copper interconnects to a scalable CPO solution that delivers higher performance at lower power and cost.
“Sankara brings deep expertise in network acceleration silicon that perfectly complements our leadership in co-packaged optics,” said Mark Wade, CEO and co-founder of Ayar Labs. “His track record building world-class engineering teams makes him the ideal leader to help us advance CPO deployment and meet the massive scaling demands of AI infrastructure.”
About Ayar Labs
Ayar Labs is transforming AI infrastructure with the industry’s first co-packaged optics (CPO) solution that’s manufactured in partnership with the world’s leading semiconductor ecosystem. Ayar Labs unlocks AI performance and profitability by enabling thousands of GPUs to operate as a single unified system with the bandwidth and latency needed for hyperscale AI. Founded in 2015, Ayar Labs is funded by domestic and international venture capital firms, as well as strategic investors including AMD, Applied Ventures, Intel Capital, NVIDIA, and VentureTech Alliance.
Co-packaged optics is rapidly moving from early innovation to infrastructure necessity. Ayar Labs is uniquely positioned to lead at the forefront of this transition. My focus is on delivering the most performant, compatible, and manufacturing-ready CPO solution for AI scale-up to overcome the bandwidth and power limitations of copper.
Sankara Venkateswaran, Vice President of Engineering, Ayar Labs
Sankara brings a rare combination of deep silicon expertise and relentless execution, with a track record of driving complex programs to successful outcomes throughout his career at Atheros/Qualcomm and Intel. What stands out most is his hands-on, highly accountable leadership style and the trust he builds with teams while operating at pace. We’re proud to have partnered with Mark Wade and Ayar Labs to bring him on as Vice President of Engineering, where his impact will be instrumental in scaling both the technology and the organization.
Kirsten Settle, Co-Managing Partner, Lonergan Partners