Supercomputing photonic startup Lightmatter landed $400 million in a Series D funding round on Wednesday, led by new investor T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.
The latest financing totals Lightmatter’s valuation to $4.4 billion which is four times its previous round in December at $1.2 billion. Google Ventures along with Fidelity Management and Research Co. backed the funding both times.
Founded in 2017, Lightmatter is focused on solving problems around energy consumption and scalability of new AI data centers; it uses light to link chips together and calculates for deep learning necessary for AI.
“We’re not just advancing AI infrastructure — we’re reinventing it,” said Co-founder and CEO Nicholas Harris. “With Passage, the world’s fastest photonic engine, we’re setting a new standard for performance and breaking through the barriers that limit AI computing. This funding accelerates our ability to scale, delivering the supercomputers of tomorrow today.”
With increasing AI workloads, the growing need for high-bandwidth, low-latency data movement is crucial for data centers. Lightmatter’s “Passage” technology addresses this challenge by leveraging 3D-stacked photonics chips to move data while reducing power consumption.
Lightmatter’s new capital will be used towards the mass deployment of Passage in partner data centers, enabling the scaling required for sustained AI innovation, the company said in a statement.
READ: Silicon photonics startup Xscape lands a $44 million investment from Nvidia, Cisco and more (October 16, 2024):
Lightmatter’s recent funding does not come as a surprise with the new boom in investments in data-centric AI startups. Another startup using photonics to address energy, performance and scalability challenges in AI data centers, Xscape Photonics announced a $44 million Series A funding just this week on Tuesday.
Crunchbase has reported that it should only be a matter of time before big tech companies pour billions into new data centers needed to keep the promise of AI alive.
“AI is evolving faster than anyone could have predicted, pushing the limits of data center technology,” said Erik Nordlander, General Partner at GV in the press release.
“Photonics isn’t just a breakthrough; it’s the future of million-xPU data centers for AI. We’ve proudly supported Lightmatter since the beginning, and after six years, our belief in their vision has only grown stronger. Lightmatter is the definitive leader in data center photonics, and we’re excited to stand behind them as they unlock the next era of AI innovation and scale.”