OpenLight Secures $34M Series A Funding to Accelerate Next-Gen Integrated Photonics for AI Data Centers.

OpenLight has raised $34M in Series A funding co-led by Xora Innovation and Capricorn Investment Group. The company will use the funding to expand its Process Design Kit (PDK) library of active and passive photonics components, scale its team, and support customers transitioning to volume production. OpenLight's PDK enables the manufacturing of heterogeneously integrated III-V photonics, accelerating time-to-market and enabling scaled manufacturing. The funding marks OpenLight's transition from a Synopsys subsidiary to a high-velocity, venture-backed company.

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 [1]. The company, transitioning from a Synopsys subsidiary, specializes in heterogeneous integration of indium phosphide and silicon photonics.

The funding will support OpenLight's expansion of its Process Design Kit (PDK) library, development of standard-based reference PICs at 1.6Tb/s and 3.2Tb/s, and scaling its team for customer production support. OpenLight's 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 [1].

The investment syndicate includes Juniper Networks, now part of HPE, signaling industry confidence in OpenLight's technology. The $34M funding represents a significant milestone in the integrated photonics sector, positioning OpenLight to capitalize on the growing demand for optical interconnects in AI data centers. The company's heterogeneous integration approach, combining indium phosphide with silicon photonics, is a technical breakthrough that enables on-chip lasers, modulators, amplifiers, and detectors in a single platform [1].

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 [1].

References:
[1] https://www.stocktitan.net/news/HPE/open-light-raises-34m-series-a-to-scale-next-gen-integrated-a901dlsvtsyg.html