Salience Labs, a University of Oxford spinout developing photonic chips for AI data centers, announced GBP 95 million in funding to scale mass production of optical circuit switches and expand its presence in Silicon Valley.
Why we recommend it: The source article explains the positioning of optical circuit switching chips for AI data centers, helping understand where optical switching fits in compute networks
Salience Labs, which develops photonic chips for AI data center interconnects, has closed an oversubscribed USD 125 million Series B round. The company previously demonstrated a 64-port all-optical silicon photonic circuit switch at ECOC 2026.
Why we recommend it: The source article links the funding to the 64-port all-optical switch demonstration at ECOC, helping assess the commercial progress of silicon photonic optical switching
In an interview, NVision CTO Ilai Schwartz explains that the company is betting on chemically designed photonic interconnects, arguing that this will make modular quantum computing hardware scalable, with a single chip potentially holding up to 100,000 molecular qubits.
The Ozcan laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles developed a digital-optical hybrid system capable of identifying deepfake videos simultaneously across multiple channels.
Why we recommend it: The original article shows a new application of diffractive optical processors in AI vision tasks, a practical case of optical computing
A team led by Peng Xie at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics has made progress in multidimensional multiplexed optical computing, improving the parallelism of optical computing.
Why we recommend it: The original article provides specific data and details that help assess the actual progress in this direction
The Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics has made progress in optically accelerated solving of large-spin-scale combinatorial optimization problems.
Why we recommend it: The original article provides specific data and details that help assess the actual progress in this direction.
Photonic quantum computing company Turing Quantum announced on January 27 that it had completed a Series B financing round worth several hundred million yuan, with investors including Sichuan Industrial Revitalization Group, Toukong Donghai, Fosun Capital and SenseTime. The Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics previously participated in its angel round. The funds will be invested in the development of practical quantum computers, breakthroughs in core technologies and the building of R&D talent. The original report said Turing Quantum has achieved mass-producible, scalable and programmable integrated photonic quantum chip manufacturing based on a thin-film lithium niobate material platform.