Early commercialmomentum 433,394 papers a year (-52%)$1.6B raised in 12 months30 companies
Using light instead of electrons to move, switch and process data, and to sense the world with lasers.
Why early commercial: NVIDIA announced Spectrum-X and Quantum-X silicon photonics switches with co-packaged optics built with TSMC and optics suppliers. Mar 18, 2025This week: NSF News released a podcast about a laser that could break the laws of physics.
Dots under a month: dated events tracked here that month.
U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researcher Jonathan Zuegel discusses the future of high-powered laser research in the United States, the ambitious NSF Optical Parametric Amplifier Line (NSF OPAL) laser facility. NSF OPAL is designed to…
From orbit, today’s space-based laser instruments measure Earth’s forests and terrain one narrow line at a time. Between those lines are enormous gaps that include millions of acres of land scientists never directly measure. NASA’s CASALS instrument will blend machine learning with an ultra-compact
U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researcher Louise Willingale discusses the most powerful laser in the United States, the NSF Zettawatt Equivalent Ultrashort Pulse Laser System, how it's being used to advance science, and how it will become…
Developers can write, run and test applications accelerated by photonic processors.
Demos include 2nm 400G per lane PAM4 and 800G ZR/ZR+ pluggable optics.
Led by Lachy Groom, Abstract Ventures
Led by New Science Ventures
Led by Maverick Silicon, Light Street Capital
Led by Fundomo, Arm
Led by Seligman Ventures
Led by Matter Venture Partners
Led by Sutter Hill Ventures
Led by Addition
Led by Neuberger Berman
Led by Gates Frontier
Led by Cherry Ventures, UVC Partners
Led by CapitalG
Led by Advent Global Opportunities, Light Street Capital
Builds photonic processors on thin-film lithium niobate for AI and HPC.
Makes optical DSPs and bought Celestial AI for optical scale-up interconnect.
Ships Spectrum-X and Quantum-X silicon photonics switches with co-packaged optics.
Foundry partner on silicon photonics process and packaging for NVIDIA's CPO switches.
Builds Passage 3D photonic interposers and co-packaged optics, plus photonic compute research.
Makes FMCW 4D lidar and, since 2026, optical sources for data centers.
Publishes on Photonics at State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instruments: 91 papers in 2 years.
Publishes on Photonics at Australian Research Council: 60 papers in 2 years.
Publishes on Photonics at IMEC: 47 papers in 2 years.
Publishes on Photonics at Harbin Institute of Technology: 41 papers in 2 years.
Nanoelectronics R&D hub running the EU NanoIC pilot line for beyond-2nm chips.
US manufacturing innovation institute running an integrated photonics foundry and packaging line in New York.
PsiQuantum team, Koen Alexander, Avishai Benyamini et al. · Nature
Shiyue Hua, Erwan Divita, Shanshan Yu et al. · Nature
Afshin Rashid
Inna Krasnokutska, Jean-Luc Tambasco, Gordon Li (8558871) et al. · Figshare
Microsoft Azure Quantum, Morteza Aghaee, Alejandro Alcaraz Ramirez et al. · Nature
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