The $40m repeat order, not the $22m SAFE, is Relativity's real disclosure
A hyperscaler that tested hollow-core fiber between two data centres has come back with a follow-on order worth nearly twice the round the company just closed.
The Product Desk
What happened
- Relativity Networks has raised a $22 million SAFE investment (a simple agreement for future equity).
- Relativity said its $22m SAFE investment is more than double its target.
- The round was drawn by new investors including Rhapsody Venture Partners, Bell Ventures Inc., and Faster Than Glass LLC.
- Relativity Networks also struck a $40m follow-on order from a "leading hyperscaler".
- The hyperscaler placing the $40 million follow-on order declined to be named for TechCrunch's piece.
Why it matters
Relativity Networks said on August 19 that it had closed a $22m SAFE investment and, separately, a $40m follow-on order from a hyperscaler it declined to name [1][3][4][6]. The order is the more informative number: it is about 1.8 times the size of the round [22], and the word "follow-on" implies a buyer that has already committed once.
That is the transition worth marking. Hollow-core fiber is, per TechCrunch, a rarely deployed technology [10], and the Orlando company's customer had recently tested its ChronoCore fiber on a link between two data centres before placing this order, according to DCD [5][12]. Neither source says what the earlier order was worth or when it landed, which is the gap in the story: a follow-on order is only as impressive as the first one, and the first one is undisclosed. For scale, TechCrunch puts projected data centre developer spending at as much as $4 trillion by the end of the decade [17], against which $40m is roughly 0.001 percent [23].
The engineering claims need sorting, because the two accounts do not agree. TechCrunch reports hollow-core fiber transmits data 30 percent faster than conventional fiber, and that CEO Jason Eichenholz estimates a signal takes about five microseconds per kilometre in conventional fiber versus three and a half in hollow-core [25][26]. Those figures are a 30 percent cut in transit time, which is a 43 percent increase in propagation speed [27]. Rhapsody Venture Partners managing partner Carsten Boers, quoted by DCD, says ChronoCore carries light roughly 47 percent faster than solid-core glass [16], which sits above what the microsecond estimates support [28]. The sources also differ on what is in the middle of the fiber: DCD describes an air-filled channel ringed by glass tubes [7], TechCrunch a vacuum [11].
The reach numbers are cleaner and more consequential. DCD reports that latency constraints have typically confined data centres to within 60km of power providers or each other, and that hollow-core extends that to 90km [20] - a 50 percent increase in radius [24], and, because buildable area scales with the square of the radius, about 2.25 times the area [21]. That is the arithmetic behind Boers' "more than doubling" line [16]. It is also the whole commercial thesis: Eichenholz told TechCrunch that the largest systems are distributing compute across campuses to reach available power, "moving to where the warm shell is, but they still need to operate as one synchronized machine" [18].
Two structural details deserve attention. First, Relativity does not own its manufacturing: ChronoCore fiber is drawn at Prysmian's Eindhoven plant and cabled at Prysmian's Claremont, North Carolina facility, with couplers, characterisation and installation training done in Orlando [13]. The July milestone the two companies announced - 24 fibers in a single 10mm cable, installed in standard microducts in testing with Dura-Line [14][15][19] - is a Prysmian capacity story as much as a Relativity one. Second, $22m arrived as a SAFE, an instrument TechCrunch describes as standard for pre-seed and seed rounds that converts at the first priced round [8]. A company with a $40m order book that has not priced its equity is a company whose investors are betting the next round prices higher; Relativity says the raise was more than double target [9], drawn by Rhapsody, Bell Ventures and Faster Than Glass [2].
Watch for the hyperscaler to be named, or for a third order. Watch whether the 47 percent and 30 percent figures converge in later marketing. And watch Prysmian's Eindhoven and Claremont output, since that is where the ceiling on deliveries actually sits.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption20
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives70
- Confidence55
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers- Builder
- Builder 33%
- Operator
- Operator 37%
- Investor
- Investor 30%
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Relativity Networks has raised a $22 million SAFE investment (a simple agreement for future equity).
- [2]
The round was drawn by new investors including Rhapsody Venture Partners, Bell Ventures Inc., and Faster Than Glass LLC.
- [3]
Relativity Networks also struck a $40m follow-on order from a "leading hyperscaler".
- [4]
The hyperscaler placing the $40 million follow-on order declined to be named for TechCrunch's piece.
- [5]
Relativity, based in Orlando, did not name the hyperscaler but noted the customer recently tested its ChronoCore advanced optical networking technology linking two data centers.
- [6]
The announcement was made on August 19.
- [7]
Hollow-core fiber features an air-filled center channel surrounded by a ring of glass tubes in a honeycomb pattern, allowing higher capacity with minimized chromatic dispersion while light travels significantly faster.
- [8]
A SAFE note, in which an investment converts into a specific number of shares once the company raises its first priced round, is a standard method used for pre-seed and seed rounds.
- [9]
Relativity said its $22m SAFE investment is more than double its target.
- [10]
Hollow-core fiber is a rarely deployed technology.
- [11]
Where traditional fiber transmits light through fiber-optic glass, hollow-core fiber transmits the same light through a vacuum chamber in the center of the line, bringing it far closer to the theoretical limit of light speed.
- [12]
Relativity Networks was founded by Jason Eichenholz, its founder and CEO, and is based in Orlando.
- [13]
Relativity's ChronoCore hollow-core fiber is produced at Prysmian's facility in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and cabled at Prysmian's plant in Claremont, North Carolina; couplers, fiber characterization, and installation training are performed in Orlando, Florida.
- [14]
As part of the joint project with Prysmian, Relativity produced its highest-density hollow-core fiber cable to date, consisting of 24 fibers in a single 10-millimeter cable.
- [15]
In testing with Dura-Line, the high-density cable was installed reliably in standard microducts, confirming readiness for real-world deployment.
- [16]
Carsten Boers, managing partner at Rhapsody Venture Partners, said ChronoCore carries light roughly 47 percent faster than solid-core glass fibers, so distributed sites can sit that much farther apart within the same latency budget, "more than doubling the area an operator can build in", and that the order book is well ahead of expectations.
- [17]
Data center developers are expected to spend as much as $4 trillion by the end of the decade.
- [18]
Eichenholz told TechCrunch: "The largest systems are distributing the compute across multiple campuses to reach the power that exists. They're moving to where the warm shell is, but they still need to operate as one synchronized machine."
- [19]
Last month Relativity and Italian optical cable manufacturer Prysmian both claimed to have produced their highest-density hollow-core fiber cable to date, using Relativity's ChronoCore hollow-core fibers.
- [20]
Traditional fiber-optic cables have typically limited data centers to within 60 kilometers (37 miles) of power providers or of one another due to latency constraints; hollow-core fiber extends this range to 90 kilometers (56 miles).
- [21]
Because buildable area scales with the square of the radius, a 60km to 90km extension corresponds to about 2.25 times the area.
- [22]
The $40 million follow-on order is about 1.8 times the size of the $22 million raise.
- [23]
A $40 million order is roughly 0.001 percent of $4 trillion in projected data centre developer spending.
- [24]
Extending the workable link distance from 60km to 90km is a 50 percent increase in radius.
- [25]
Hollow-core fiber allows data to be transmitted 30% faster than conventional fiber.
- [26]
The CEO estimates a signal takes roughly five microseconds to travel one kilometer in conventional fiber, reduced to three and a half microseconds in hollow-core.
- [27]
A drop from five to three and a half microseconds per kilometre is a 30 percent reduction in transit time and a 43 percent increase in propagation speed.
- [28]
The claimed 47 percent speed advantage exceeds the roughly 43 percent implied by the company's own per-kilometre microsecond estimates.
Sources
3 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- datacenterdynamics.comRelativity Networks completes $22m raise, as hollow-core fiber provider secures $40m hyperscaler contract
1 article · August 19, 2026
- techcrunch.comRelativity Networks raises $22 million to bring a faster kind of fiber to data centers
1 article · August 19, 2026
- thenextweb.comRelativity Networks raised $22mn to make AI’s fibre run at nearly light speed
1 article · August 20, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- AI Data Center Infrastructure
- Startup Funding
- Hollow-Core Fiber
Entities
- Rhapsody Venture Partners
- Rodrigo Amezcua Correa
- Bell Ventures Inc.
- Jason Eichenholz
- Relativity Networks