Ciena unveiled a new $200M venture capital firm, Ciena Ventures, on Monday, with the investments aimed at the networking industry. The venture firm will invest in early-stage companies and tech-focused venture funds to help with Ciena's push to advance the future of networking in the artificial intelligence era. "As technologies such as AI reshape the networking landscape, Ciena Ventures provides another vehicle for executing on our long-term strategy and capital allocation priorities," said Ciena Chief Strategy Officer and executive vice president David Rothenstein in a statement. Rothenstein added that investing in companies and funds through Ciena Ventures will enable the accelerated development of transformative solutions, strengthen the broader innovation ecosystem, expand Ciena's visibility into emerging technologies, and help the company evolve its portfolio, develop new solutions, and pursue opportunities in adjacent markets. Ciena shares fell 6.8% in premarket trading amid a sell-off in AI-linked stocks.
Ciena CorpCiena launches a $200M venture capital firm, Ciena Ventures, to invest in early-stage networking/AI companies and tech-focused funds.
