OpenLight Raises $34M Series A to Scale Next-Gen Integrated Photonics for AI Data Centers
OpenLight, a leader in custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (PASIC) design, has secured a $34 million Series A funding round co-led by Xora Innovation and Capricorn Investment Group. The company, transitioning from a Synopsys subsidiary, specializes in heterogeneous integration of indium phosphide and silicon photonics.
The company's Process Design Kit (PDK), protected by over 360 patents, provides customers with a comprehensive library of photonic components. The PDK is validated at Tower Semiconductor foundry and is currently utilized by over 20 companies. The funding will support PDK library expansion, development of standard-based reference PICs at 1.6Tb/s and 3.2Tb/s, and team scaling for customer production support.
OpenLight, azienda leader nella progettazione su misura di Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (PASIC), ha ottenuto un finanziamento Serie A da 34 milioni di dollari co-guidato da Xora Innovation e Capricorn Investment Group. La societ脿, in fase di transizione da una controllata Synopsys, 猫 specializzata nell'integrazione eterogenea di fosfuro di indio e fotonica su silicio.
Il loro Process Design Kit (PDK), tutelato da pi霉 di 360 brevetti, offre ai clienti una libreria completa di componenti fotonici. Il PDK 猫 convalidato presso lo stabilimento Tower Semiconductor ed 猫 gi脿 impiegato da oltre 20 aziende. I fondi saranno destinati all'ampliamento della libreria PDK, allo sviluppo di PIC di riferimento basati su standard a 1,6Tb/s e 3,2Tb/s e all'aumento del team per supportare la produzione dei clienti.
OpenLight, l铆der en el dise帽o personalizado de Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (PASIC), ha asegurado una ronda de financiaci贸n Serie A de 34 millones de d贸lares copresidida por Xora Innovation y Capricorn Investment Group. La compa帽铆a, que se est谩 separando de una filial de Synopsys, se especializa en la integraci贸n heterog茅nea de fosfuro de indio y fot贸nica en silicio.
Su Process Design Kit (PDK), protegido por m谩s de 360 patentes, brinda a los clientes una biblioteca integral de componentes fot贸nicos. El PDK est谩 validado en la fundici贸n Tower Semiconductor y ya lo usan m谩s de 20 empresas. Los fondos se emplear谩n para ampliar la biblioteca PDK, desarrollar PICs de referencia basados en est谩ndares a 1,6Tb/s y 3,2Tb/s y ampliar el equipo para apoyar la producci贸n de los clientes.
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360瓯挫澊 雱橂姅 韸鬼棃搿� 氤错樃霅橂姅 鞛愳偓鞚� 頂勲靹胳姢 靹り硠 韨ろ姼(PDK)電� 瓿犼皾鞐愱矊 韽啝雼� 甑劚鞖旍唽鞚� 韽磩鞝侅澑 霛检澊敫岆煬毽ゼ 鞝滉车頃╇媹雼�. 鞚� PDK電� Tower Semiconductor 韺岇毚霌滊Μ鞐愳劀 瓴�歃濍悩鞐堨溂氅� 順勳灛 20臧� 鞚挫儊鞚� 旮办梾鞐愳劀 靷毄 欷戩瀰雼堧嫟. 鞚措矆 鞛愱笀鞚� PDK 霛检澊敫岆煬毽� 頇曥灔, 響滌 旮半皹鞚� 1.6Tb/s 氚� 3.2Tb/s 彀胳“ PIC 臧滊皽, 攴鸽Μ瓿� 瓿犼皾 靸濎偘 歆�鞗愳潉 鞙勴暅 鞚鸽牓 頇曥订鞐� 靷毄霅� 鞓堨爼鞛呺媹雼�.
OpenLight, sp茅cialiste du design sur mesure de Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (PASIC), a obtenu un financement de s茅rie A de 34 millions de dollars co-dirig茅 par Xora Innovation et Capricorn Investment Group. L'entreprise, en cours de transition depuis une filiale de Synopsys, est sp茅cialis茅e dans l'int茅gration h茅t茅rog猫ne d'indium phosphide et de photonique sur silicium.
Son Process Design Kit (PDK), prot茅g茅 par plus de 360 brevets, fournit aux clients une biblioth猫que compl猫te de composants photoniques. Le PDK est valid茅 chez le fondeur Tower Semiconductor et est actuellement utilis茅 par plus de 20 entreprises. Les fonds serviront 脿 茅tendre la biblioth猫que PDK, d茅velopper des PIC de r茅f茅rence bas茅s sur des standards 脿 1,6Tb/s et 3,2Tb/s, et 脿 renforcer les effectifs pour soutenir la production des clients.
OpenLight, ein f眉hrendes Unternehmen im kundenspezifischen Design von Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (PASIC), hat eine Series-A-Finanzierung in H枚he von 34 Millionen US-Dollar gesichert, die von Xora Innovation und Capricorn Investment Group mitgef眉hrt wird. Das Unternehmen, das sich von einer Synopsys-Tochter lossagt, ist auf die heterogene Integration von Indiumphosphid und Siliziumphotonic spezialisiert.
Das Process Design Kit (PDK) des Unternehmens, gesch眉tzt durch 眉ber 360 Patente, stellt Kunden eine umfassende Bibliothek photonischer Bauteile zur Verf眉gung. Das PDK ist in der Tower Semiconductor Foundry validiert und wird derzeit von mehr als 20 Unternehmen verwendet. Die Finanzierung dient der Erweiterung der PDK-Bibliothek, der Entwicklung standardbasierter Referenz-PICs mit 1,6Tb/s und 3,2Tb/s sowie dem Ausbau des Teams zur Unterst眉tzung der Kundenproduktion.
- Secured significant $34M Series A funding round
- Strong intellectual property portfolio with over 360 patents
- PDK already adopted by more than 20 companies
- Strategic partnerships with major industry players including HPE/Juniper Networks
- Validated manufacturing process through Tower Semiconductor foundry
- Transitioning from established parent company (Synopsys) to independent venture-backed status carries execution risks
- Operating in highly competitive AI/data center market with established players
Insights
OpenLight's $34M funding accelerates silicon photonics adoption in AI data centers with HPE-owned Juniper as investor.
OpenLight's $34 million Series A funding represents a significant milestone in the integrated photonics sector. The company's transition from a Synopsys subsidiary to an independent venture-backed entity positions it to capitalize on the growing demand for optical interconnects in AI data centers. What makes OpenLight particularly valuable is their heterogeneous integration approach combining indium phosphide with silicon photonics鈥攁 technical breakthrough that enables on-chip lasers, modulators, amplifiers, and detectors in a single platform.
The investment syndicate is strategically composed of players with deep semiconductor expertise, including Juniper Networks (now part of HPE), which signals industry confidence in OpenLight's technology. The mention of over 360 patents covering their PDK and manufacturing processes provides robust intellectual property protection, creating significant barriers to entry for competitors.
From a technical perspective, OpenLight's foundry-validated PDK at Tower Semiconductor is a crucial differentiator. By providing pre-validated building blocks, they dramatically reduce development risks and accelerate time-to-market for customers鈥攁 critical advantage in the fast-moving AI infrastructure space. The company's focus on scaling to 1.6Tb/s and 3.2Tb/s reference PICs aligns perfectly with the exponential bandwidth demands of modern AI workloads.
For HPE, Juniper's investment represents a strategic position in the optical interconnect supply chain that will become increasingly critical as AI workloads continue to drive data center architectures toward photonics-based solutions. While OpenLight remains an independent company, this investment relationship could potentially give HPE early access to cutting-edge optical interconnect technologies that address the growing power and bandwidth bottlenecks in traditional electrical interconnects.
- Series A co-led by听Xora Innovation and Capricorn marks OpenLight's transition from a Synopsys subsidiary to a high-velocity, venture-backed company
- Covered by more than 360 patents, OpenLight's PDK gives customers access to a library of passive and active components
- Foundry-validated PDK accelerates time-to-market and enables scaled manufacturing of heterogeneously integrated III-V photonics
This round of financing completes OpenLight's transition from a Synopsys subsidiary to a high-velocity, venture-backed company positioned to address the growing demand for faster and more energy-efficient data movement in AI data center networks. As the shift from electrical to optical interconnects accelerates to support AI-scale workloads, integrated photonics is emerging as a core enabler of next-generation data center infrastructure. Additional applications for OpenLight's technology include telecom, automotive and industrial sensing, IoT sensing, healthcare and quantum computing.
OpenLight's Process Design Kit (PDK), based on the heterogeneous integration of indium phosphide and silicon photonics, gives customers access to a library of passive and active components covering integrated lasers, modulators, amplifiers and detectors. This PDK has been validated at the leading photonics foundry, Tower Semiconductor, ensuring designs are production-ready from day one. This enables customers to create custom PASICs using proven building blocks, simplifying advanced chip development and accelerating time-to-market. OpenLight currently holds more than 360 patents covering its PDK and the manufacturing of heterogeneously integrated III-V photonics. The OpenLight PDK is already being used by over 20 companies to design and fabricate PASICs across a wide spectrum of applications.
With the new capital injection, OpenLight will expand its PDK library of active and passive photonics components, including its leading-edge 400Gb/s modulator and indium phosphide heterogeneously integrated on-chip laser technology. OpenLight will also ramp up its standard-based reference PICs听at 1.6Tb/s and 3.2Tb/s to provide customers with the most flexible and leading-edge component design library available in the market. In addition, the company will scale its team to support customers as they transition to volume production over the next 12 months.
"As we enter this next phase of our company's growth, we are excited to be adding such strong investors with deep roots and expertise in the semiconductor and photonics industry," said Dr. Adam Carter, CEO of OpenLight. "With this strong syndicate of investors, we can push the boundaries of innovation and deliver transformative solutions to our customers. This funding will allow us to scale our operations, deepen our R&D efforts and bring our groundbreaking products to market faster. We believe heterogeneous integrated silicon photonics will transform the way data is processed and transmitted, and we're excited to be at the forefront of this revolution."
"Xora has conviction that the field of photonics is going to see exponential growth in the coming years, and III-V heterogeneous integration is one of the foundational capabilities that will enable this growth," said Phil Inagaki, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer, Xora. "We see OpenLight not only as a technology leader in this field, but also as a company positioned to quickly scale manufacturing with foundry partners. One of the critical challenges for the photonics industry in the back half of this decade will be achieving scale, and we see OpenLight's PDK as an important part of the solution."
"Optical connectivity in data centers has become critical for next-generation scale-up and scale-out AI architectures. OpenLight's heterogeneous integration delivers on all three axes of performance, reliability and cost, which will enable the explosive growth of optical IO," said Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner at Capricorn's Technology Impact Funds.听"With the industry's leading team, open PDKs, strong foundry and customer relationships, OpenLight is best positioned to meet the scale of demand that is needed for next-generation AI hardware."听
About OpenLight
OpenLight is the world leader in custom PASIC design. OpenLight's PASIC technology integrates all the components of silicon photonics devices, both active and passive components, into one chip. Our executive and engineering teams deliver the world's first open silicon photonics platform with integrated lasers, modulators, amplifiers and detectors to improve the performance, power efficiency and reliability of designs for datacom, AI, high-performance computing, telecom, automotive and industrial sensing, IoT sensing, healthcare and quantum computing applications. With over 360 patents, OpenLight is bringing optical solutions to places it has never been before and enabling technologies and innovation that weren't previously possible. The company is headquartered in
About Xora Innovation
Xora provides capital and commitment to exceptional entrepreneurs transforming essential industries and powering the AI revolution. The firm invests across three key sectors: Compute & Communications, Energy and AI in Physical Industries. Xora supports its portfolio companies for the long term through its expertise and by leveraging the extensive network of its anchor LP,听Temasek. For more information, visit .
About Capricorn's Technology Impact Fund
The Technology Impact Fund (TIF) is a venture capital partnership that invests in companies developing and scaling novel engineering-based solutions to global challenges. TIF's investment process is grounded in comprehensive perspectives on long-term, global trends in technology, transportation, power, storage, efficiency, semiconductors, aerospace, sensors, earth data and analytics. TIF is an early investor in iconic companies including Tesla, Joby Aviation, SpaceX, QuantumScape, Redwood, Planet Labs, Saildrone, Helion, Nuvia, Innovium, and Raxium.
Capricorn Investment Group is an investment firm founded to demonstrate that it is possible to invest profitably while driving sustainable positive change. Capricorn manages about
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