When Light Meets Silicon: Why M12 is Betting on Photonics to Power AI’s Next Leap

When Light Meets Silicon

The rules of data center design are changing. The rapid expansion and scale of AI workloads are driving an evolution of compute and storage focused data centers into “AI Factories”—specialized facilities with power and networking requirements so big that traditional data center architectures can’t handle them. Companies investing in these facilities aren’t just buying more […]

Founders Feature: Neon

Neon Group

In August 2024, M12 made a strategic investment in Neon, a serverless Postgres database designed for modern developers, to the tune of $25.6M. This investment was made alongside existing investors Abstract Ventures, General Catalyst, Menlo Ventures, and Notable Capital. In a feature with TechCrunch, M12 managing partner Andrew Smyth explained, “Postgres is quickly becoming the […]

Founders Feature: d-Matrix

d-Matrix Product Diagram

In November of last year, d-Matrix emerged from stealth, announcing a total of $154M raised and backing from more than 25 different companies. Their recent Series B round was led by Singapore’s Temasek, with support from M12, Microsoft’s venture fund. As Karl Freund put it in Forbes, “d-Matrix uses a hybrid approach to memory that […]

From Data Overload to Insight: How AI is Shaping the Next Era of Observability

Observability

Enterprise observability is the practice of measuring the state of an IT system by examining its outputs. This process involves reliability and operations engineers manually wrangling together disparate data sources and information, using multiple software tools, to understand operating state. The goal is to maintain system performance, which is crucial for digital services like video […]