This Month's Latest Tech News in Carlsbad, CA - Saturday May 31st 2025 Edition

Carlsbad's tech sector is entering a pivotal phase in 2025, propelled by a blend of global investment and local innovation. Novartis announced a landmark $23 billion U.S. expansion featuring a new biomedical research hub in San Diego and the addition of an advanced Radioligand Therapy manufacturing facility in Carlsbad, amplifying the region's biotech presence and creating significant job growth with its strategic investment plan.

Meanwhile, AI-driven startups remain central to national and regional VC trends, with recent quarters seeing multi-billion-dollar raises for giants like OpenAI and Perplexity AI, solidifying artificial intelligence as a dominant area for innovation and funding across sectors such as healthcare, cloud infrastructure, and customer service according to the latest AI funding roundups.

Local Carlsbad companies are also making headlines: Allez Health, for instance, secured $60 million in Series A+ funding to advance digital health solutions, reflecting the city's expanding footprint in both healthcare technology and AI applications in this year's largest regional investments.

Carlsbad-based GigaIO has set a new benchmark in AI infrastructure by unveiling its PCIe-native AI fabric, bringing transformative gains in both speed and efficiency for model training, fine-tuning, and inference.

Recent tests show the platform enables organizations to train AI models twice as fast and achieve 83.5x lower latency during inference compared to traditional RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) networks - while cutting power consumption by 35-40% and reducing total infrastructure costs.

In benchmarks against RoCE, GigaIO's solution delivered 104% higher throughput for distributed training, 47.3% greater throughput on the demanding Llama 3.2-90B Vision Instruct model, and superior efficiency that lets users hit peak performance using 30-40% less hardware.

A key value proposition is the system's streamlined architecture, which eliminates the need for additional NICs and network switches, minimizing both energy needs and administrative complexity.

Lamini CTO Greg Diamos observed,

“With GigaIO, we spend less time on infrastructure and more time optimizing LLMs.”

CEO Alan Benjamin notes these advances enable “faster time-to-value and more scalable AI deployments.” For a clear comparison of advantages, see the following table:

Metric	GigaIO AI Fabric	Traditional RoCE
Training Speed	2x faster	Baseline
Latency (Inference)	83.5x lower	Higher
Power Consumption	35-40% less	Baseline
Throughput (Llama 3.2-90B)	47.3% higher	Baseline
Hardware Required	30-40% less	More

With its SuperNODE and portable Gryf platforms, GigaIO's innovations are positioned to accelerate AI-driven research, defense, and analytics locally and globally.

Dive deeper into GigaIO's performance benchmarks, explore new AI fabric innovations at the cost and energy savings announcement, and learn about their upcoming global showcase at ISC High Performance 2025.

MaxLinear, headquartered in Carlsbad, has taken a significant leap in data center technology with the launch of its Rushmore 1.6T PAM4 DSP, designed to meet the rapidly escalating demands of AI and machine learning workloads.

Built on Samsung's advanced CMOS process, Rushmore delivers up to 200G per lane and supports both Ethernet and InfiniBand® protocols, pushing the boundaries in performance, power efficiency (supporting optical modules under 25W), and link diagnostics for next-generation data centers.

At OFC 2025, MaxLinear partnered with industry giants like Jabil and Intel to showcase live demonstrations of Rushmore, emphasizing features such as robust health monitoring and low-latency architecture aimed at hyperscale deployments.

As Adam Carter, CEO of OpenLight, observed,

"Upgrading to 51.2T & 102.4T switches requires 200G/lane connectivity ecosystems. OpenLight's silicon photonics solution supports collaboration with MaxLinear PAM4 DSP tech, a significant step for high-performance, low-power solutions."

The product is co-optimized with the upcoming Washington 1.6T TIA, striving to deliver the lowest power 1.6T solution available.

Financial analysts note that Rushmore's rollout is expected to accelerate throughout 2025 with broader revenue impact in 2026, as data centers seek more scalable, energy-efficient networking.

For a detailed summary of feature comparisons and market momentum, see the coverage on MaxLinear's Rushmore launch, the OFC 2025 networking innovations roundup, and market analysis on next-gen high-speed connectivity.

Carlsbad-based Viasat has been selected by the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC) to advance next-generation space laser communications through Phase 2 of the $100 million Enterprise Space Terminal (EST) program, a pivotal initiative to build standardized, secure optical crosslink terminals enabling real-time, resilient data transfer among Department of Defense satellites.

Viasat will mature the design and develop a prototype of its Free Space Optical (FSO) terminal, focusing on interoperability, low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) to support future multi-orbit space mesh networks according to their official press release.

This effort solidifies Viasat's role alongside CACI and General Atomics, selected from a pool of four companies, with the EST terminals forming core elements of MILNET - the military's space mesh network designed for resilient information pathways as reported by SpaceNews.

Highlighting the impact, USSF Lt. Col. Jeffrey Fry stated:

“The EST prototypes are foundational elements to the future space data transport network that we are building. The ESTs will implement a common waveform so all satellites carrying these terminals can talk to each other. This is important as the network of satellites carrying EST compatible terminals will provide diverse communication paths for data that is critical to our national security and our way of life.”

For a breakdown of the EST Phase 2 participants and objectives, see the table below.

Company	Role	Key Focus
Viasat	Prototype Development	SWaP-C optimization, interoperability, FSO technology
CACI	Prototype Development	Standardized terminals, waveform integration
General Atomics	Prototype Development	Subsystem demonstrations, payload support

Viasat's continued innovation not only advances national defense communications but also anchors Carlsbad as a leader in cutting-edge space technology.

Read more detailed coverage at Space Insider.

Integrated Specialty Coverages (ISC), a Carlsbad-based multi-line program administrator known for its advanced use of AI, data analytics, and predictive modeling, has acquired TravelInsurance.com, a leading travel insurance comparison marketplace.

This strategic move expands ISC's specialty insurance portfolio and strengthens its consumer-facing presence. TravelInsurance.com, founded over a decade ago and boasting partnerships with top insurers like AXA, Generali, and Travel Guard, will maintain its brand and direct-to-consumer model, with co-founders Stan Sandberg and Drew Sharma continuing to lead growth initiatives.

ISC will integrate its robust technological infrastructure to enhance the marketplace platform, benefiting millions of customers who rely on it for transparent, easy-to-compare policies.

As CEO Matt Grossberg expressed:

“TravelInsurance.com brings a best-in-class platform, deep industry relationships, and a loyal customer base to ISC. Their tech-forward approach and commitment to customer experience perfectly complements our vision of making specialty insurance easy and accessible to consumers. We're thrilled to welcome co-founders Stan Sandberg and Drew Sharma and the entire TravelInsurance.com team to ISC.”

The acquisition underscores how innovative use of technology and data is driving change in the insurance sector, allowing ISC to further simplify complex insurance products and continue setting market standards.

For more details on the acquisition and its impact, see coverage on ITIJ's industry analysis of ISC's acquisition of TravelInsurance.com and the official announcement from ISC's newsroom updates.

Cox Business has teamed up with RingCentral to launch a cutting-edge, AI-powered unified communications suite aimed at transforming the way Carlsbad businesses connect and operate.

The collaboration delivers the "Cox Business Connect with RingCentral," a cloud-based platform that unifies HD voice, video, chat, SMS, and fax services while leveraging AI-driven features such as real-time transcriptions, closed captioning, meeting summaries, and intelligent highlights - all within a single intuitive application.

Later in 2025, the partnership will introduce an AI-first contact center solution, Cox Business Contact Center with RingCentral, which offers omnichannel capabilities across more than 20 digital channels, AI-powered quality management, CRM integrations, and conversational insights to drive productivity and customer satisfaction.

As Mark Greatrex, President of Cox Communications, states,

"By combining the Cox Business fiber-powered network with RingCentral's capabilities, we empower companies of all sizes to streamline operations, enhance employee productivity, deliver exceptional customer experiences, and drive long-term growth."

The partnership underscores the region's momentum in adopting advanced, scalable business technology, further enabled by Cox's robust fiber network and RingCentral's market leadership in AI communications.

For a detailed feature breakdown, see the official launch in the Cox Business press release on Advanced Unified Communications Solutions, explore partner perspectives and support insights in the Channel Futures report on the Cox Business-RingCentral unified communications offer, and review the broader industry context at Lightwave's coverage of Cox Business's unified communications strategy.

iQmetrix SummitX 2025 is set to accelerate telecom AI innovation this October at the luxurious Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, drawing together carriers, device manufacturers, and retail leaders under the theme “Reimagine Everything.” Over three days from October 19–21, attendees can expect immersive sessions on AI's role in enhancing retail operations, the Store of the Future showcase, and a Vendor Showcase primed to deliver high-value networking and new business opportunities.

As Megan Howse, Senior Vice President of Marketing at iQmetrix, notes,

“SummitX is all about continuous innovation, sparking big ideas, and creating great experiences. This year we're in a truly transformational time with AI so we'll be ‘reimagining everything' together.”

Key highlights include expert-led seminars on how AI drives operational excellence, customer personalization, and proactive network management in telecom, with parallels to leading-edge deployments by industry giants discussed at Google Cloud's MWC 2025 showcase of AI-driven telecom transformation.

Vendors and partners can engage with integrated solutions designed for telecom retail and enjoy record lead generation, as evidenced by past testimonials. For a glimpse into the experience and resort facilities, the venue's visual tour highlights championship golf, spas, and vibrant networking spaces.

With super-early-bird registration - just $425 until May 31 - iQmetrix welcomes the industry to register for what promises to be an unforgettable event. For full event details, agenda previews, and vendor opportunities, visit the official SummitX 2025 information and registration page.

Mobile app security in 2025 is facing unprecedented risks as artificial intelligence powers both defenders and attackers. Businesses are witnessing a surge in AI-driven attack automation - up 187% in Q1 2025 - leading to rising breach costs averaging $5.2 million, and expanding regulatory challenges across finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure.

A new paradigm is emerging: AI-native security platforms capable of real-time behavioral monitoring, automated threat detection, and dynamic policy enforcement are now essential, as highlighted in FutureCISO's analysis of mobile defense in 2025.

According to Digital.ai's latest report, 83% of apps are under constant attack, with industries like telecommunications (91%) and financial services (87.5%) worst affected, and the democratization of free AI tools fueling sophisticated client-side exploits and reverse engineering (Digital.ai 2025 Application Security Threat Report).

AI is a double-edged sword: while organizations adopt machine learning for predictive threat detection and continuous authentication, adversaries use generative AI for deepfakes, advanced phishing, and zero-day malware.

As Forbes reports, cybersecurity leaders now recognize identity - not the network perimeter - as the new frontline, prioritizing multi-layered, adaptive defenses and emphasizing, “Managing identity at scale is critical for security” (RSAC 2025 coverage on agentic AI and identity threats).

The future of secure mobile apps lies in AI-powered, proactive approaches, integrating zero-trust architecture, compliance automation, and continuous testing to outpace ever-evolving threats.

Metric	Value/Trend
AI-powered attack increase (Q1 2025)	+187%
Apps under constant attack	83% overall (Telecom: 91%, Finance: 87.5%)
Average breach cost (2025)	$5.2 million

“Escalating challenges from AI-powered attacks like advanced malware and biometric bypasses. Traditional defenses are insufficient against dynamic, evolving threats.” - Jan Sysmans, Appdome

As Carlsbad's tech scene flourishes, K. Consulting is equipping local small businesses with AI-powered digital marketing tools that rival the resources of much larger companies.

By leveraging AI-driven location-based marketing, businesses can engage potential customers in real time, sending personalized promotions when visitors enter geofenced zones or frequent nearby locations - strategies proven to boost foot traffic and sales according to the Forbes Agency Council's analysis of AI and location-based marketing.

This local focus is in line with 2025's broader digital marketing trends, which highlight the importance of AI for personalization, campaign automation, and overcoming reduced marketing budgets.

A recent report from the Digital Marketing Institute notes that 71% of marketers using AI see improved personalization, and that AI is critical for automating data analysis, content creation, and hyper-local targeting (see their breakdown of digital marketing trends for 2025).

The benefits for small businesses include not only higher engagement but also improved inventory optimization and community relationships, while ongoing AI development means affordability and accessibility continue to improve.

However, transparency in data use and maintaining human creativity remain essential for trust and authenticity. As encapsulated in HubSpot's recent guide, a hybrid approach utilizing AI's efficiency alongside human oversight helps avoid content inaccuracies and maximizes ROI - an approach K. Consulting is adopting to help Carlsbad businesses “scale operations cost-effectively, but not replace marketers.” For a detailed look at practical AI marketing applications and industry benchmarks, consult HubSpot's overview of AI in digital marketing.

GigaIO has solidified its position as a leader in AI infrastructure with recent benchmark results demonstrating its AI fabric's ability to vastly outperform traditional RoCE Ethernet, driving major gains for organizations like Lamini running large AMD-based clusters.

Side-by-side evaluations show GigaIO's interconnect achieving 2x faster AI model training and fine-tuning performance, 83x better time to first token for inference, and 35-40% lower power consumption, all while simplifying deployment and reducing hardware requirements.

Notably, for the Llama 3.2-90B Vision Instruct model, GigaIO delivered an 83.5x reduction in time-to-first-token and 47.3% higher throughput, supporting equivalent user loads with up to 40% less infrastructure versus RoCE. When integrated with AMD Instinct MI300X GPUs in the SuperNODE platform, GigaIO's fabric streamlines multi-GPU scaling for LLMs and demanding AI workloads - validated by performance studies at Lamini and industry-standard MLPerf benchmarks from AMD. As Lamini's CTO Greg Diamos notes,

“With GigaIO, we spend less time on infrastructure and more time optimizing LLMs.”

The table below highlights comparative benchmark results:

Test Scenario	GigaIO Fabric	RoCE
Training/Fine-Tuning Speed	2x faster	Baseline
Time to First Token (TTFT)	83x faster	Baseline
Power Consumption	35-40% lower	Baseline

For detailed performance studies and an in-depth look at how GigaIO's PCIe-native fabric enables leading throughput and energy efficiency in AMD-based LLM workloads, visit the GigaIO SuperNODE Performance Overview, read the GigaIO Demonstrates Power and Cost Savings with New AI Interconnect Benchmarks, and learn how Lamini leverages SuperNODE in TensorWave Cloud for enterprise-grade AI innovation.

Carlsbad's role as a national leader in semiconductors and AI has never been clearer, with local companies like MaxLinear and GigaIO setting new industry standards for efficiency and performance.

MaxLinear's new Rushmore™ 1.6T PAM4 DSP, developed with Samsung's advanced CMOS, delivers up to 200G per lane with less than 25W power consumption for optical modules, and is engineered for next-generation AI/ML data center networks - demonstrated live at OFC 2025 in San Francisco in partnership with leading photonics and data interconnect firms.

Meanwhile, GigaIO's AI fabric benchmarks show a 2x speed-up in model training and 83x faster inferencing, with up to 40% lower power requirements compared to traditional RoCE Ethernet solutions - cutting both infrastructure costs and deployment time for large-scale AI.

According to industry research, shipments of 200G/lane PAM4 DSPs like Rushmore are projected to grow at a 50% CAGR between 2023 and 2027, underscoring Carlsbad's expanding market share in the high-speed AI/ML sector.

Technology	Key Features	Power Savings	Market Growth
MaxLinear Rushmore 1.6T DSP	Up to 200G/lane, <25W modules, AI/ML optimized	Substantial boost over previous DSPs	50% CAGR (2023–2027)
GigaIO AI Fabric	2x faster training, 83x faster inferencing	35–40% vs. RoCE Ethernet	AI infrastructure adoption accelerating

“Rushmore was specifically optimized to address the next generation of 1.6T interconnects, featuring low power consumption, excellent link performance, and enhanced features to accelerate deployments and monitor link health.” - Kishore Seendripu, CEO, MaxLinear

Altogether, these advances reinforce Carlsbad's growing influence in the semiconductors and AI landscape - attracting industry partnerships, boosting energy efficiency, and positioning the city as a critical innovator for 2025 and beyond.

Carlsbad's tech ecosystem heads into the latter half of 2025 with remarkable momentum, fueled by groundbreaking conferences, major capital investments, and a robust, collaborative entrepreneurial community.

The city's economic infrastructure is being reinforced by multi-million-dollar expansions in life sciences - such as the 165,000 sq. ft. enlargement of Ionis Pharmaceuticals' campus - and critical tech upgrades in manufacturing and logistics at firms like Argonaut Manufacturing Services and Airspace, which recently secured $70 million for global AI-powered logistics expansion Ionis Pharmaceuticals' Carlsbad campus expansion and Airspace's $70 million funding round.

Community programs like Carlsbad Life in Action and events such as iQmetrix SummitX 2025 continue to foster an environment where industry leaders, creators, and technologists exchange ideas and drive innovation.

As one SummitX attendee reflected,

“SummitX was electrifying and unforgettable. An incredible opportunity to network with industry peers and connect with a multitude of experts. The chance to learn and collaborate is simply priceless.”

With new venues, expanded mentorship programs, and a commitment to strengthening talent pipelines, Carlsbad's trajectory points to even broader horizons in technology and biotech.

For aspiring tech professionals or entrepreneurs wanting to join this thriving ecosystem, comprehensive local upskilling options - like Nucamp's Solo AI Tech Entrepreneur and Full Stack Web + Mobile bootcamps - provide pathways to participate in Carlsbad's vibrant future.

Discover more about the city's startup scene at Carlsbad Life in Action and mark your calendar for SummitX 2025 to be part of the next chapter in Carlsbad's innovation story.