Silicon photonics startup Lightmatter announced the release of two advanced technologies on Monday, aimed at accelerating data transfer between AI chips by using light-based connections instead of traditional electrical signals.
Valued at $4.4 billion, the Mountain View-based company has developed an interposer and a chiplet designed to improve chip-to-chip communication through silicon photonics—an innovation that uses light rather than electricity to transfer information.
Pioneering Optical Connectivity for AI
With a total of $850 million in venture capital funding, Lightmatter is at the forefront of a growing trend in Silicon Valley where optical technologies are being explored as a scalable solution for increasingly complex AI workloads such as chatbots and image generation.
While traditional chip interconnects rely on electrical signals, Lightmatter’s optical approach promises higher bandwidth and reduced energy consumption, which could prove essential as AI models grow in size and computational demand.
New Products to Launch in 2025 and 2026
Lightmatter introduced two core products:
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Interposer: A base layer designed to host AI chips and enable them to communicate efficiently with neighboring chips. It is manufactured by GlobalFoundries and is scheduled for release in 2025.
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Chiplet: A compact component that can be integrated directly onto AI chips, providing light-based data routing for improved performance. The chiplet is expected to hit the market in 2026.
These technologies are intended to be packaged together with AI chips, advancing the industry’s move toward modular, high-speed chip design.
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A Competitive Landscape in Optical AI Hardware
Chip giants like AMD and Nvidia have already started incorporating optical technologies into their products. Earlier this month, Nvidia unveiled optical features in some of its networking chips, although CEO Jensen Huang noted the technology has yet to reach maturity for full-scale integration across its portfolio.
Lightmatter’s announcement signals a step forward in making optical connections more viable and commercial for AI hardware, positioning the startup as a key player in the next wave of computing infrastructure.
