Lightmatter raises funds for photonic chips amid AI race

Amid the AI-driven datacenter boom, Lightmatter has secured $400 million in new funding to advance its photonic chip technology, marking a pivotal moment for the fast-growing startup.

Photonic chip startup Lightmatter has raised $400 million in a Series D funding round led by T. Rowe Price, valuing the company at $4.4 billion. This funding boost comes amid surging demand for more efficient data center infrastructure due to the rise of artificial intelligence technologies like ChatGPT. With backing from investors such as Fidelity and Alphabet’s GV, Lightmatter plans to use the capital to produce and deploy its innovative chips and expand its workforce across the US and Canada.

The Mountain View-based company, founded in 2017, specialises in using silicon photonics to build faster and more energy-efficient chips, a crucial technology for AI and cloud computing. Co-founder and CEO Nick Harris indicated that this could be the company’s last private funding round, with plans to go public in the near future. He emphasised that photonic chips are the future of high-performance computing, which is why Lightmatter has secured large deals with major tech players, though the company has not disclosed specific clients.

With the potential to work across platforms like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD, Lightmatter’s technology aims to significantly increase AI cluster bandwidth while lowering energy consumption. Its first large AI clusters are expected to be operational next year as the company prepares for an initial public offering.