OpenLight secured $50 million in Series A-1 funding to accelerate deployment of its heterogeneous silicon photonics platform, targeting AI data centers, telecom networks, and emerging applications such as sensing and quantum computing. The round brings total funding to $84 million and reflects growing adoption of its process design kit (PDK) for photonic application-specific integrated circuits (PASICs).
The oversubscribed round was led by Matter Venture Partners, with participation from Acclimate Ventures, Catapult Ventures, and existing backers including Xora Innovation, Capricorn Investment Group, Mayfield, and New Legacy. The funding comes as demand increases for optical interconnect solutions that can address bandwidth and power constraints in large-scale AI infrastructure. OpenLight’s technology integrates indium phosphide (III-V materials) with silicon photonics to enable on-chip lasers, modulators, amplifiers, and detectors within a single platform.
OpenLight’s PDK, validated at Tower Semiconductor, is currently used by more than 25 companies to design production-grade PASICs. The company plans to expand its component library, including 400G modulators and integrated laser technology, while advancing reference designs for 1.6T and 3.2T optical interconnects. These developments align with industry efforts to scale optical bandwidth and reduce energy consumption in next-generation AI and cloud data centers.
- Funding: $50M Series A-1 (total $84M)
- Lead investor: Matter Venture Partners
- Platform: Heterogeneous silicon photonics (InP + silicon)
- Key offering: Foundry-validated PDK for PASIC design
- Adoption: 25+ companies designing production photonic ICs
- Foundry partner: Tower Semiconductor
- Core components: Lasers, modulators, amplifiers, detectors
- Roadmap: 400G modulators; 1.6T and 3.2T PIC reference designs
- Target markets: AI data centers, telecom, sensing, quantum
“Optical technology is critical to the future scaling of data centers and AI infrastructure. We believe OpenLight’s heterogeneous integrated silicon photonics platform will be the core ingredient to this worldwide global expansion of optical connectivity where power and bandwidth matter,” said Wen Hsieh, Founding Managing Partner at Matter Venture Partners.
🌐 Analysis: OpenLight’s funding underscores the strategic importance of heterogeneous integration in silicon photonics, particularly the integration of indium phosphide for on-chip light sources. This approach addresses a longstanding limitation in silicon photonics—external laser dependency—and aligns with broader industry efforts to integrate optics more tightly with compute and switching silicon.
🌐 Analysis: The company’s focus on a standardized PDK ecosystem positions it similarly to electronic design automation models, enabling a broader base of customers to design photonic ICs. This model complements advances from companies such as Broadcom and Marvell in optical DSPs and interconnects, suggesting an ecosystem shift toward modular, design-driven photonic integration for AI infrastructure.