Jan 28, 2025

Celestial AI of Santa Clara, CA, USA, creator of the Photonic Fabric optical interconnect technology platform for AI computing systems, has appointed Lip-Bu Tan to its board of directors. With more than 40 years of deep-tech expertise as well as extensive board experience, Lip-Bu Tan is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with a track record of identifying and scaling transformative technologies. As the founder and chairman of global venture capital firm Walden International as well as a founding managing partner of Celesta Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures, Tan has been helped to drive advances across semiconductor design, electronic design automation and AI-driven solutions. Tan currently serves on the boards of leading companies including Schneider Electric SE and Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. He also serves on the board of trustees and School of Engineering Dean’s Council at Carnegie Mellon University and the School of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council at MIT, UC Berkeley School of Engineering and School of Computing, Data Science and Society Advisory Boards. Tan previously served as a director of Intel Corp, Softbank Group and Hewlett Packard Enterprises. He was also the former CEO and executive chairman of Cadence Design Systems from 2009 to 2023. “With his exceptional track record in scaling technology companies and deep knowledge of the semiconductor and AI ecosystems, Lip-Bu’s insights will be instrumental as we drive the growth of our Photonic Fabric platform and revolutionize next-generation data-center infrastructure for accelerated computing,” believes Celestial AI’s CEO Dave Lazovsky. Tan’s accolades for his contributions to technology and entrepreneurship include the Global Semiconductor Alliance’s Dr Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award as well as the Semiconductor Industry Association's highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award. Celestial AI believes that Tan’s insights and guidance as a director will be invaluable as it continues to accelerate innovation and deliver industry-first solutions. “The transformative potential of Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric for AI computing, networking and memory solutions stands to be as significant as the impact OpenAI’s GPT has had on AI models,” reckons Lip-Bu Tan. “The Photonic Fabric technology platform introduces a revolutionary suite of architectural tools for optical interconnectivity that extend from AI accelerator and GPU packages to hyperscale AI clusters.” See related items: