Silicon Valley Makes a Rare Bet on Silicon With Startup Barefoot

For nearly two decades, venture capitalists in Silicon Valley have been losing interest in the technology that gave the area its name. According to Bloomberg, one startup is convincing them to take another look at silicon.

The brightest star in this long-neglected segment of the tech market is Barefoot Networks. It’s building a new kind of customizable chip for the ubiquitous equipment that companies use to send data between computers. In less than four years, Barefoot has pulled in about $155 million of funding from the biggest names in the Valley, Wall Street and China.

Barefoot is banking on a seasoned executive from Google and Qualcomm to help the startup break into a $50 billion industry. Craig Barratt, who was appointed CEO of Barefoot in February, acknowledged the odds are against him if it comes down to spending power. “It’s a huge amount, and it’s a scary thing for a startup,“ he said. “It’s the sport of kings.“

Barefoot’s plan is as ambitious technically as it is financially. Its chip contains 11 billion transistors and is made with the same kind of sophisticated production techniques used by Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker. Barefoot promises to resolve limitations associated with switches, the machines that direct the flow of information between computers.

AT&T has already tested Barefoot products, sending data between Washington and San Francisco. The startup said its chip is as fast as anything available from larger suppliers and has the unique ability to be programmed using software to imbue additional functions without waiting for a new chip to be released. Typically, Cisco and other switch makers must wait for Broadcom to release an updated chip each year, providing them with the basis to upgrade their boxes.

But the industry is moving toward customization. An alliance known as P4, which includes AT&T, Google and Tencent, is investing in a computer language that will help companies develop ways to make switches more secure or avoid getting overloaded. Currently, diagnosing what’s going on inside a network as it’s happening is largely impossible.

Cisco suggested it may look at Barefoot as a potential supplier, though the company declined to comment further, saying it doesn’t discuss products before they’re announced. “We are in a unique position to take advantage of these new technologies,“ said Ish Limkakeng, a Cisco vice president.