ChipsSeptember 9, 2026via GeekWire
NLM Photonics adds key investors in quest to reduce the power needed to move data between chips
Why it matters
As AI workloads scale, interconnect power is becoming the bottleneck. Photonic I/O—encoding data on light instead of electricity—could reshape data-center economics and unlock denser GPU clusters. NLM's funding signals the venture market sees this as infrastructure-critical.
Key signals
- NLM Photonics raised $13M from Mitsubishi Chemical Ventures and Pangaea Ventures
- Materials-on-silicon approach: photonic data encoding layered on standard silicon chips
- Use case: inter-chip communication with lower power consumption than electrical interconnects
- Relevance: AI compute buildout is power-constrained; photonic I/O is a candidate solution to interconnect scaling
- Timing: September 2026—venture backing for compute infrastructure plays remains strong
- $13M funding round
- Investors: Mitsubishi Chemical venture arm, Pangaea Ventures
- Technology: photonic materials on silicon for optical data encoding
- Problem solved: power efficiency of inter-chip communication
- Seattle-based startup
- Application: reducing power draw for data movement between chips (critical AI infrastructure bottleneck)
The hook
$13M for the power problem nobody can ignore: moving data between chips costs more than computing it.
The Seattle startup's materials sit on top of silicon chips and imprint data onto a beam of light using less power. Mitsubishi Chemical's venture arm and Pangaea Ventures joined a $13 million round.