Emergingby Glyph
Q.ANT
Builds photonic processors on thin-film lithium niobate for AI and HPC.
Photonicsqant.com
Companies in frontier tech
35 of 403 companies
Marvell
Makes optical DSPs and bought Celestial AI for optical scale-up interconnect.
Photonicsmarvell.com
NVIDIA
Supplies the Isaac GR00T humanoid models, simulation tools and Jetson Thor robot computers.
Humanoid robots, Photonics, Synthetic biology, 6G wirelessnvidia.com
TSMC
Largest contract chipmaker, with N2 nanosheet, A16 backside power, and CoWoS and SoIC packaging.
Advanced semiconductors, Photonicstsmc.com
Lightmatter
Builds Passage 3D photonic interposers and co-packaged optics, plus photonic compute research.
Photonicslightmatter.co
Aeva
Makes FMCW 4D lidar and, since 2026, optical sources for data centers.
Photonicsaeva.com
Ayar Labs
Makes optical I/O chiplets and co-packaged optics for AI scale-up systems.
Photonicsayarlabs.com
Molex
Connectivity maker buying Teramount to scale fiber connectivity for CPO.
Photonicsmolex.com
Teramount
Makes self-aligning, detachable fiber-to-chip couplers for co-packaged optics; being acquired by Molex.
Photonicsteramount.com
Celestial AI
Developed the Photonic Fabric optical interconnect; acquired by Marvell in 2026.
Photonicscelestial.ai
Luminar
Automotive lidar maker whose lidar assets were sold to MicroVision in a 2026 bankruptcy auction.
Photonicsluminartech.com
MicroVision
Sells lidar sensors, including the Iris line bought from Luminar.
Photonicsmicrovision.com
Neurophos
Duke and Metacept spin-out building metamaterial-based optical processors for AI inference.
Advanced materials, Photonicsneurophos.com
Alchip
ASIC design house building co-packaged optics designs with Ayar Labs.
Photonicsalchip.com
Lightelligence
Builds optoelectronic hybrid computing and optical interconnect products.
Photonicslightelligence.ai
Coherent
Supplies lasers, optical transceivers and materials; a partner on NVIDIA's CPO switches.
Photonicscoherent.com
Lumentum
Supplies lasers and optical components, including external laser sources for CPO.
Photonicslumentum.com
OpenLight
Designs custom photonic ASICs on a heterogeneous silicon photonics process with on-chip lasers.
Photonicsopenlightphotonics.com
Tower Semiconductor
Foundry offering the PH18 silicon photonics platform.
Photonicstowersemi.com
Enlightra
Makes chip-scale multi-wavelength comb lasers for terabit optical links.
Photonicsenlightra.com
Hesai
Makes automotive and robotics lidar sensors.
Photonicshesaitech.com
iPronics
Makes silicon photonics optical circuit switches for AI data centers.
Photonicsipronics.com
Lightium
Runs a thin-film lithium niobate photonic foundry from prototype to volume.
Photonicslightium.co
Lumai
Builds optical computing servers aimed at running LLM inference.
Photonicslumai.co.uk
nEye
Develops an optical circuit switch on a chip for AI data center networks.
Photonicsneye.ai
Oriole Networks
Builds PRISM, a photonic switching network that replaces electrical switches for AI.
Photonicsoriolenetworks.com
Ouster
Makes digital lidar sensors for automation, drones and robotics.
Photonicsouster.com
POET Technologies
Makes optical interposer based optical engines for AI data communication.
Photonicspoet-technologies.com
Scintil Photonics
Builds single-chip DWDM laser sources for AI data center optical links.
Photonicsscintil-photonics.com
Xscape Photonics
Develops custom silicon photonics and multi-wavelength lasers for AI cluster bandwidth.
Photonicsxscapephotonics.com
NTT (Japan)
80 papers in this field in 24 months (OpenAlex)
PhotonicsCandidate, not yet researched
OLIX
Builds photonic inference processors and rack systems for serving large AI models.
PhotonicsCandidate, not yet researched
OSCP
OSCP develops photonic inertial measurement units (IMUs) for navigation.
PhotonicsCandidate, not yet researched
VIGO Photonics
Vigo Photonics is a Polish electronics company that specializes in the creation of photonic integrated circuits and epitaxial wafers.
Photonics, Advanced semiconductorsCandidate, not yet researched
Volantis
Volantis develops photonic inference systems for AI.
PhotonicsCandidate, not yet researched