What Lightmatter does
Lightmatter is the photonic computing leader for AI infrastructure, building chips that use light instead of electricity to move and process data inside next-generation data centers. Its flagship Passage platform is a 3D-stacked silicon photonics interposer that delivers tens to hundreds of terabits per second of optical bandwidth between chips — directly attacking the interconnect bottleneck that limits GPU clusters today. The Passage M1000, announced in March 2025, offers a reported 114 Tbps of total optical bandwidth. The company also develops Envise, a photonic AI accelerator that performs the matrix multiplications at the heart of deep learning using tiny optical components, reducing power consumption while increasing throughput.
Who it's for
Lightmatter's customers are hyperscalers, AI labs, and OEMs designing the next wave of AI training and inference clusters. Its photonic interconnect roadmap is positioned at the system level — partners include Amkor for advanced packaging and GlobalFoundries for mass production — meaning the buyers are typically chip and platform engineering teams at the largest cloud providers and AI builders.
Pricing
Lightmatter sells direct to data center operators and OEMs through enterprise hardware contracts. Pricing is project-based and not publicly disclosed.
Team & funding
Lightmatter was founded in 2017 by Nicholas Harris (CEO, MIT PhD), Darius Bunandar (Chief Scientist), and Thomas Graham (COO). Headcount has grown rapidly — from 191 employees in early 2025 to roughly 315 by early 2026 across Boston and Mountain View offices. The company has raised approximately $850M in total funding, most recently a $400M Series D in October 2024 led by T. Rowe Price that quadrupled valuation to $4.4B. Earlier backers include Google Ventures, SIP Global Partners, Viking Global, HPE, Fidelity, and Matrix Partners.