DriveNets, an Israeli networking software company, closed a $410 million Series D round at an $8.5 billion valuation, bringing total capital raised to $1 billion. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Atreides Management, with AMD joining as a new strategic investor alongside existing backers Pitango, D1 Capital Partners, and new investor Red Dot Capital Partners, according to Reuters.
What DriveNets Does
DriveNets builds software-defined networking solutions for telecommunications providers, AI companies, and cloud operators managing large-scale infrastructure. Its technology uses standard hardware combined with proprietary software layers to enable high-performance scaling across large AI compute clusters, according to Calcalist.
The company says it is cash-flow positive, with more than $1 billion in orders and project backlog. AT&T is a major customer whose core network already runs on DriveNets’ Network Cloud solution. Last July, AT&T acquired shares from employees and investors for $650 million, according to Calcalist.
Why Networking Matters for Agent Infrastructure
The funding thesis tracks a pattern visible across AI infrastructure investment: as AI workloads scale from single-model inference to multi-step agent workflows distributed across clusters, network fabric performance becomes a primary constraint. GPU supply dominated the infrastructure conversation for the past two years. Networking is now attracting comparable capital.
DriveNets’ press release, reported by PR Newswire, positions the round explicitly around “surging demand for Ethernet fabric in large-scale AI deployments.” The new capital will support expansion of the AI infrastructure business and increase platform capacity for deployments expected in 2026 and 2027.
Context
DriveNets was founded by Ido Susan and Hillel Kobrinsky. Susan previously founded Intucell, acquired by Cisco in 2013 for $475 million after raising just $6 million, according to Calcalist. The $8.5 billion valuation makes DriveNets Israel’s second most-valuable privately held company, per Globes. The company is also exploring a potential secondary transaction later this year.
AMD’s participation as a strategic investor signals chipmaker interest in the networking layer of AI infrastructure, not just the compute layer. With GPU supply constraints easing and inference workloads growing, the bottleneck is shifting to how data moves between accelerators, a problem DriveNets is positioned to address.