Neurophos raises $110 million to supercharge photonic AI chips
Neurophos, a startup building next-gen photonic AI chips, just scored $110 million in Series A funding.
Big names like Gates Frontier and Microsoft's M12 chipped in, bringing the company's total raise to $118 million.
What does Neurophos do?
They're making ultra-efficient optical processing units (OPUs) designed for data centers—think of them as a powerful upgrade over today's GPU racks.
Their tech aims to deliver massive AI performance without guzzling energy, and they're planning to ramp up production, expand their Austin HQ, and open an engineering site in San Francisco.
Why is this a big deal?
Neurophos's chips pack serious punch: each one can handle 235 PetaOPS at 56 GHz using just 675W.
That means eight of these OPUs can deliver about 1.88 ExaOPS while drawing about 5.4 kW—making high-powered AI tasks way more energy-friendly.
What's next?
With this funding, Neurophos is building its first integrated photonic compute system for data centers.
They've already landed contracts with several customers and are working closely with Microsoft.
If all goes well, this could seriously shake up how big data centers run AI—faster, greener, and more cost-effective.