Photon Bridge Raises €10M to Tackle AI’s Emerging Laser Bottleneck
Photon Bridge, redefining photonics integration, led by Paul Marchal and Rui Santos, has raised €10 million to tackle an emerging bottleneck in AI infrastructure: producing the millions of lasers that will be needed to connect increasingly large clusters of AI processors. The round was co-led by new investors, the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and 360 Capital, with existing investors Innovation Industries, Faber, and Brabant Development Agency (BOM) also increasing their investment.
AI infrastructure growth is driving demand for optical networking, with Goldman Sachs Research projecting the market to reach $154 billion by 2028. As AI clusters scale, optical connections and co-packaged optics are moving closer to processors, increasing the need for high-volume laser production.
Photon Bridge addresses this challenge by combining light from multiple lower-power semiconductor lasers rather than relying on a few high-power units. Its architecture aims to improve manufacturing yields, scale production across multiple indium phosphide foundries, and deliver up to 40 mW of optical power per wavelength per fiber.
“AI is fundamentally changing the way computing infrastructure is built,” said Paul Marchal, CEO of Photon Bridge. “We are moving towards enormous systems in which hundreds of thousands of processors have to operate together, and moving data between them is becoming one of the defining constraints on performance. “That means optics has to move closer to the compute. But it also creates an entirely different manufacturing challenge. The industry will soon need millions of these laser sources every year. Instead of making individual lasers increasingly powerful and difficult to manufacture, we move that scaling challenge into the architecture.”
Photon Bridge prioritizes manufacturing yield, addressing a key challenge as laser production scales from telecom volumes to meet AI infrastructure demand.
“Every new wave of compute creates new bottlenecks further down the supply chain, and lasers are the next one," said Ion Hauer, Investment Partner at APEX Ventures. "Photon Bridge is addressing this with a technology that combines deep photonics expertise with a credible path towards manufacturing at very large scale.”
“AI is turning lasers from a telecom component into a semiconductor-scale product,” said Cesare Maifredi, Partner at 360 Capital. “Once you start talking about millions of units a year, manufacturing yield becomes fundamental. Photon Bridge has designed its architecture from the beginning around the volumes this market is going to require.”
The funding will accelerate product development and customer qualification, with first samples expected in 2027 and volume manufacturing targeted for 2028. Photon Bridge will also expand its Eindhoven team ahead of commercialization.
