Semiconductor Chip Startups Using Photons Are Bagging Significant Funding: Reuters - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), GLOBALFOUNDRIES (NASDAQ:GFS)

Computers using light rather than electric currents for processing are gaining traction, and startups using photons in chips are getting significant funding, Reuters reports.
Ayar Labs, a startup developing silicon photonics technology, raised $130 million from investors, including Nvidia Corp NVDA.
Beyond connecting transistor chips, startups using silicon photonics for building quantum computers, supercomputers, and chips for self-driving vehicles also raised significant funds.
Another startup, PsiQuantum, raised $665 million.
Lightmatter, which builds processors using light to speed up AI workloads in the data center, raised $113 million.
Bill Gates-backed Luminous Computing, a startup building an AI supercomputer using silicon photonics, raised $115 million.
Moore's law, which said that every two years, the density of the transistors on a chip would double and bring down costs, is slowing, pushing the industry to seek new solutions to handle increasingly heavy artificial intelligence computing needs.
In 2021, silicon photonics startups raised over $750 million, doubling yearly.
Experts saw AI is growing and taking over large parts of the data center, with silicon photonics becoming standard hardware in data centers.
Semiconductor manufacturers also geared up to use their silicon chip-making technology for photonics.
GlobalFoundries Inc GFS disclosed that collaboration with PsiQuantum, Ayar, and Lightmatter has helped build up a silicon photonics manufacturing platform for others to use.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

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