Credit: Photon Bridge Eindhoven-based Photon Bridge has raised €10M, co-led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and 360 Capital, to build laser light sources for the optical links inside AI data centres. It plans first samples in 2027 and volume production from 2028. Photon Bridge, an Eindhoven startup that makes laser light sources for AI data centres, has raised €10M, the company said on Wednesday. The Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and 360 Capital co-led the round.
Existing investors Innovation Industries, Faber and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM) also put in more money. The company was called Photon IP until last year, when it raised €4.75M in seed funding. AI data centres increasingly use light, rather than copper wires, to move data between chips. Those optical links need lasers to supply the light.
The supply chain was built for telecoms, which needs far fewer of them. “The industry will soon need millions of these laser sources every year,” said Paul Marchal, Photon Bridge’s chief executive. Instead of building one powerful laser, Photon Bridge combines light from several weaker ones, each on a different wavelength, and sends them down a single fibre. Weaker lasers are less likely to fail in production, so more of them pass testing, the company says. Its design targets up to 40 milliwatts of power per wavelength.
The company does not run its own factory. It works with outside chipmakers and can source lasers from several of them. Photon Bridge will use the money to develop its product, test it with customers and hire in Eindhoven. It plans to ship its first samples in 2027 and prepare for mass production from 2028.
Investors are pouring money into AI’s optical links. Nvidia has put at least $6.5B into photonics firms since March, and CScale raised $145M last month to stop laser failures from stalling AI systems. San Francisco’s Volantis also raised $88M this month for photonic memory built on its own lasers. Get the TNW newsletter ✕ Close Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
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