OpenLight Lands $50M to Build AI's High-Speed Optical Backbone

SANTA CLARA, CA – April 28, 2026 – OpenLight, a company at the forefront of silicon photonics, today announced it has secured $50 million in a Series A-1 funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $84 million. The oversubscribed round, led by deep-tech specialist Matter Venture Partners, signals a surge in investor confidence that light-based data transfer is essential to power the next generation of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.

The new capital will accelerate the global deployment of OpenLight's custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (PASICs). These chips are designed to solve a critical bottleneck facing the technology industry: the rapidly escalating data demands of AI infrastructure, automotive sensing, and quantum computing are outstripping the capabilities of traditional copper-based electrical interconnects. The funding round saw participation from new investors Acclimate Ventures and Catapult Ventures, alongside existing backers Xora Innovation, Capricorn Investment Group, Mayfield, and New Legacy.

The Growing Need for Speed and Light

The explosion of generative AI has created an insatiable appetite for computational power, but that power is often wasted. As massive clusters of GPUs work to train complex models, they can be left idle, waiting for data to arrive. The electrical wires that have served as the nervous system of data centers for decades are now becoming a choke point, limited by speed, distance, and the immense heat and power they consume.

This is where silicon photonics comes in. By replacing electrons with photons—particles of light—data can be moved at higher speeds, over longer distances, and with a fraction of the energy consumption. The market for this technology is expanding rapidly, with some analysts projecting the optical infrastructure market for AI alone could more than double to over $65 billion by 2028. For hyperscalers and AI developers, adopting optical solutions is no longer a choice, but a strategic necessity to build more efficient and scalable systems.

"Optical technology is critical to the future scaling of data centers and AI infrastructure," said Wen Hsieh, Founding Managing Partner at Matter Venture Partners, in a statement. "We believe OpenLight’s heterogenous integrated silicon photonics platform will be the core ingredient to this worldwide global expansion of optical connectivity where power and bandwidth matter."

Beyond Silicon: The Heterogeneous Advantage

While the promise of silicon photonics is clear, not all approaches are created equal. OpenLight’s key innovation lies in its patented "heterogeneous" integration process. Pure silicon is excellent for guiding light but inefficient at producing it. To solve this, OpenLight has developed a method to bond a thin layer of indium phosphide—a material that excels at generating light—directly onto its silicon wafers.

This breakthrough allows the company to integrate all critical components, including high-performance lasers, amplifiers, modulators, and detectors, onto a single chip. This on-chip integration eliminates the need for costly and inefficient external lasers, a limitation that has plagued other silicon photonics platforms. The result is a more compact, powerful, and energy-efficient solution.

To accelerate adoption, OpenLight provides customers with a Process Design Kit (PDK), a comprehensive library of these proven active and passive components. This allows other companies to design their own custom PASICs for a wide range of applications, from data center networking to automotive LiDAR and medical sensors. With over 25 companies already using the PDK, OpenLight is building an ecosystem around its technology, positioning itself as an enabling platform rather than just a component supplier. This entire process is validated for mass production by a partnership with leading foundry Tower Semiconductor, ensuring designs are ready for market from day one.

A Vote of Confidence from Deep Tech Investors

The composition of OpenLight's latest funding round is as significant as the amount. The lead investor, Matter Venture Partners, specializes in "HardTech"—companies building foundational hardware and semiconductor innovations. Similarly, new investors Acclimate Ventures and Catapult Ventures focus on deep-tech solutions for AI infrastructure, energy efficiency, and advanced hardware systems.

This strategic alignment provides more than just capital; it is a powerful validation of OpenLight’s technology from investors who understand the fundamental challenges of scaling next-generation computing. Their backing signals a broader trend in venture capital: a renewed focus on the complex, foundational hardware that will underpin future software and AI advancements. These investors are making long-term bets on companies solving physics-based problems that software alone cannot address. The investment is a clear indicator that the market sees OpenLight's heterogeneous photonics as a critical piece of the puzzle for a more powerful and sustainable technological future.

Charting the Roadmap to Terabit Speeds

OpenLight plans to use the new funding to aggressively expand its strategic roadmap. A key focus will be enhancing its PDK with new components, including a cutting-edge 400G modulator and its industry-leading integrated laser technology. This will further empower its customers to build even more sophisticated chips.

Furthermore, the company will accelerate the development of reference designs for 1.6T and 3.2T Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). These ultra-high-speed platforms, capable of transmitting 1.6 and 3.2 terabits of data per second, are designed to meet the future bandwidth requirements of the most demanding AI data centers. By providing these reference designs, OpenLight helps standardize the path to next-generation speeds, reducing development time and risk for the entire industry.

“This oversubscribed funding round adds highly sophisticated investor partners who will enable us to accelerate our strategic roadmap, expand worldwide sales and technical support, and bring heterogeneous photonic integrated circuits to global markets at scale,” said Adam Carter, President and CEO of OpenLight. The capital infusion, combined with a portfolio of over 410 patents, positions the company to solidify its leadership and drive the adoption of integrated photonics into new markets and applications that were previously not possible.