Jane Lanhee Lee

(Reuters) – Computers that use light instead of electric currents to process data, which were only an idea years ago, are gaining traction. Startups who have solved the engineering problem of photons being used in chips are receiving large funding.

Ayar Labs (a startup that develops this technology, silicon photonics), announced on Tuesday that it has raised $130million from investors, including Nvidia Corp.

The transistor-based silicon chip is a great way to increase computing power. Since transistors are now the same width as several atoms it has been difficult shrinking them. It is difficult to create something that small, and signals may bleed between them as they become smaller.

Moore’s Law, which stated that every two years, the density of transistors in a chip would increase and decrease costs by doubling, is now slowing down. This has prompted the industry to look for new ways to deal with increasing artificial intelligence computing requirements.

Data firm PitchBook claims that silicon photonics startup raised more than $750 million last year, which is more than double the amount in 2020. This was $18 million in 2016.

“A.I. A.I. “is growing like crazy, taking over large areas of the data center,” Charles Wuischpard (CEO at Ayar Labs) told Reuters in an exclusive interview. “The energy use in the data movement and the data movement challenge is an enormous problem.”

It is difficult because large machine-learning algorithms often require thousands or hundreds of computers. Additionally, there are bottlenecks in the data transfer speed between current electric methods and chips.

For decades light has been used in transmission of data via fiber-optic cables (including undersea cables) but it was difficult to bring it up to chip level as the devices that create or control it are not as easily shrinkable as transistors.

PitchBook’s senior emerging technology analyst Brendan Burke expects silicon photonics to become common hardware in data centers by 2025 and estimates the market will reach $3 billion by then, similar to the market size of the A.I. In 2020, the market for graphic chips will be $3 billion.

Silicon photonics is used to connect transistor chips and also for supercomputers, quantum computers, and chips that can be used in self-driving automobiles. Startups are also raising significant funds.

PsiQuantum has so far raised approximately $665 million, but the promise of quantum computers changing our world takes years.

Lightmatter is a company that builds light-based processors to accelerate AI workloads within the datacenter. It raised $113 million. The chips will be released later in this year, and customers will test them soon thereafter.

Luminous Computing raised $115 million to fund its AI supercomputer built using silicon photonics. It was backed by Bill Gates.

PHOTONIC FOUNDRIES

This technology isn’t just being promoted by startups. Photonics is also a growing area of interest for semiconductor companies.

GlobalFoundries head of Computing and Wired Infrastructure Amir Faintuch explained that the collaboration with PsiQuantum and Lightmatter have helped create a silicon photonics manufacturing platform available for other users. This platform was launched March.

Peter Barrett is the founder and investor of Playground Global Venture Capital, a venture capital firm. He believes that silicon photonics will speed up computing in the long term, although it’s a difficult road ahead.

Ayar Labs’ team solved the problem of data interconnect for high-performance computing. It will take a while until we can have digital photonic computing for non-quantum systems.