Photonic Computing Startup, Lightmatter, Secures $400 Million Series D Financing, Led By Investor T. Rowe Price Associates
Startup Lightmatter Inc., which creates computing devices that rely on light rather than energy, has raised $400 million in series D funding, nearly quadrupling its valuation to $4.4 billion.
Nick Harris, CEO and founder of the company disclosed the funding in a statement.
The investment round was led by new investor T. Rowe Price, with involvement from previous backers such as Fidelity and Alphabet’s GV.
With the most recent fundraising less than a year after the prior round, the firm has raised $850 million since its founding as it looks to take advantage of the data centre expansion and the need for more effective infrastructure in the artificial intelligence (AI) competition that ChatGPT started.
Lightmatter claims it creates new channels for computer processors to exchange information and perform computations. Its approach combines waveguides—tiny structures that reroute light—with silicon photonics.
The funds raised will be used to enable the introduction of a gadget dubbed Passage that can
Harris stated that optical fibres enable the connection of several Passages to form supercomputers. The first of these machines, which the company has been constructing for a few clients, will be put online by the end of next year, he continued.
“This is probably our last private funding round,” said co-founder and CEO Nick Harris. “We’ve booked very large deals. And that is the reason that this level of funding is possible. We see a future where most of the high-performance computing and AI chips very soon are going to be based on Lightmatter tech.”
Additionally, Passage saves power, according to Aris. He said that it can take up to 300 watts to maintain a single link between two layers of switches, but Lightmatter’s method uses just roughly 50 watts, a sixfold savings in power.
Harris stated that Lightmatter would be expanding its workforce to expand the photonics technology stack and getting Passage ready for widespread implementation in partner data centres with this funding.
We earlier reported that 11x, one of Europe’s most heralded AI startups in recent years, said that it has raised $24 million in Series A financing.
