Neurophos Secures $110M for Photonic AI Chips, Led by Gates Frontier
Duke University spinout developing light-based processors 10,000x smaller than existing photonic elements.
Neurophos, an Austin-based startup developing photonic AI chips, announced a $110 million Series A round on January 22, led by Gates Frontier with participation from Microsoft's M12, Aramco Ventures, and Bosch Ventures.
Technology Breakthrough
Neurophos has developed proprietary micron-scale metamaterial optical modulators that are 10,000 times smaller than existing photonic elements. The chips use photons instead of electrons, achieving clock speeds over 100 GHz while consuming less power.
Performance Claims
The company claims its chip can run at 56 GHz, yielding a peak 235 Peta Operations per Second (POPS) while consuming 675 watts—compared to NVIDIA's B200, which delivers 9 POPS at 1,000 watts.
Timeline
Neurophos expects its first chips to reach market by mid-2028. The company is partnering with Norwegian data center operator Terakraft to launch a real-world pilot of its optical AI accelerator in 2027.
Leadership Vision
CEO Dr. Patrick Bowen stated: "Moore's Law is slowing, but AI can't afford to wait. Our breakthrough in photonics unlocks an entirely new dimension of scaling, by packing massive optical parallelism on a single chip."
The funding brings Neurophos's total raised to $118 million as it works to commercialize technology spun out of Duke University.
Related Articles
Google Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Targets Enterprise Scale at $0.25 Per Million Tokens
Google has launched Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite in preview, the fastest and most cost-efficient model in its Gemini 3 family, priced at just $0.25 per million input tokens with 2.5x faster time-to-first-token than its predecessor. The model targets high-volume enterprise workloads where cost and latency matter more than peak capability.
Mandiant Founder Kevin Mandia Raises $190 Million for AI Cybersecurity Startup Armadin
Kevin Mandia, who sold Mandiant to Google for $5.4 billion in 2022, has raised a record-breaking $190 million in combined seed and Series A funding for Armadin, a startup building autonomous AI security agents. Backed by Accel, GV, Kleiner Perkins, and the CIA's In-Q-Tel, Armadin is already working with Fortune 100 companies.
Nscale Raises $2 Billion Series C — the Largest Funding Round in European Tech History
London-based AI infrastructure company Nscale closes a $2 billion Series C at a $14.6 billion valuation — the largest funding round in European history — backed by Citadel, Dell, NVIDIA, and Nokia, with former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg joining the board.