Lightmatter (see Pulse 2.0 profile here), a leader in photonic supercomputing, announced today that it has raised a $400 million Series D. This company valuation at $4.4 billion brings the total capital raised to $850 million.
This funding round was led by new investors advised by T. Rowe Price Associates with participation from existing investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company and GV (Google Ventures). And with this funding round, Lightmatter will prepare Passage for mass deployment in partner data centers, enabling the scaling required for sustained AI innovation.
As frontier AI models expand and training clusters surpass 100,000 XPUs, traditional electronic interconnects are becoming a critical bottleneck. And these interconnects cannot keep pace with the growing need for high-bandwidth, low-latency data movement, which is crucial for scaling AI workloads. Plus, Lightmatter’s Passage technology addresses this challenge by leveraging 3D-stacked photonics chips to move data. This breakthrough dramatically increases AI cluster bandwidth and performance, while reducing power consumption.
Passage – the first photonic engine to deliver IO in 3D – frees XPU shoreline to support more memory, addressing another critical bottleneck for scaling AI performance. By transforming data movement across AI clusters, Lightmatter enables systems to scale efficiently, unlocking new performance levels and preparing computing infrastructure for the demands of next-generation AI models.
Lightmatter’s Series D funding round comes on the heels of the appointment of Simona Jankowski as Lightmatter’s Chief Financial Officer, the appointment of Richard Beyer and Robin Washington to its Board of Directors, and incredible customer traction. Since the company’s last funding round in December 2023, Lightmatter expanded its footprint with an office in Toronto and continues to grow its team.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re not just advancing AI infrastructure—we’re reinventing it. 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.”
-Lightmatter co-founder and CEO Nick Harris
“Lightmatter has the technology, leadership, and team to bring the industry the future of computing through photonics. The demand for AI supercomputers that will power the next wave of frontier AI models is strong and growing. We’re pleased to back Lightmatter on their mission to help power AI infrastructure.”
-Tony Wang, portfolio manager of the T. Rowe Price Science & Technology Fund
“AI is evolving faster than anyone could have predicted, pushing the limits of data center technology. 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.”
-Erik Nordlander, General Partner at GV
