Google Ventures-backed photonic chip startup raises $600m
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The news: Photonic chip startup Lightmatter, raised USD400 million ($600 million) in a Series D funding led by T Rowe Price that values the Mountain View, California-based company at USD4.4 billion.
Existing investors, including Fidelity and Alphabet’s GV, also participated, the company said in a statement.
The context: Founded in 2017, Lightmatter wants to capitalise on the AI-driven datacentre boom and plans to use the funds to manufacture and deploy its photonic chips, which are a type of computer chip that uses light (photons) instead of electrical signals (electrons) to process and transmit information. They are designed to boost AI cluster performance while reducing power consumption in datacentres.
What they said: Lightmatter’s co-founder and CEO, Nick Harris, hinted at an IPO as the company expands its 200-person team across the US and Canada.
"This is probably our last private funding round,” Harris told Reuters.
“We've booked very large deals. And that is the reason that this level of funding is possible. We see a future where most of the high performance computing and AI chips very soon are going to be based on Lightmatter tech."
The sources: Reuters, Lightmatter statement
