Networks of sensors feeding data to physical AI systems require real-time communications pathways, particularly in cases where human safety and immediate response are a priority, such as autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots.
Ethernovia, a San Jose, California, company that just raised $90 million in its Series B funding round, is pitching an Ethernet-based, packet processor platform to fill that role. It would be deployed as a zonal or centralized architecture in vehicles, robots, and other intelligent machines, and would act in much the same way as the human body’s central nervous system does, receiving data from receptors (sensors) and controlling how the body reacts and takes follow-up actions.
The company’s $90 million round was led by Maverick Silicon with participation from Socratic Partners, Conduit Capital and CDIB-TEN Capital. The round also included additional funding from Ethernovia’s existing investors including Porsche SE, Qualcomm Ventures and Fall Line Capital.
Ethernovia said it will use the new funding to accelerate development and production of its next-generation family of automotive and edge packet processors; expand software and systems capabilities that enable flexible, programmable networking; and support customer engagements across automotive, robotics and industrial markets.
Ethernovia’s funding comes as the physical AI has been an increasingly hot topic in recent months, including at this month’s CES 2026 event in Las Vegas.
“The industry is entering the era of physical AI—where intelligence must sense, reason and act in the real world with predictable, real-time performance,” said Ramin Shirani, Ethernovia CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “Legacy in-vehicle and industrial networks were never designed for AI-driven workloads. However, our packet processor platform is purpose-built to eliminate these constraints, enabling zonal and centralized architectures that scale autonomy and dramatically simplify vehicle system design.”