Photon Bridge, an Eindhoven-based developer of photonic laser sources, has raised €10 million in a funding round aimed at solving a growing bottleneck in AI infrastructure. The round was co-led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and 360 Capital, with existing investors Innovation Industries, Faber, and Brabant Development Agency increasing their investment. The company is developing high-power, multi-wavelength laser sources for optical interconnects that are expected to require millions of units as optical connections move closer to AI chips.
Market Context
More than 20 million data center AI accelerators are forecast to ship annually by 2028, according to Omdia. Goldman Sachs Research expects the rapid buildout of AI infrastructure and rising computing power per rack to expand the addressable market for optical networking ninefold to $154 billion by 2028. As AI clusters grow from thousands to hundreds of thousands of processors, moving data between those chips is becoming one of the fundamental constraints on their performance.
Technology Approach
Rather than generating required optical power with a small number of increasingly powerful lasers, Photon Bridge combines and multiplexes light from multiple lower-power semiconductor lasers. Lower power densities make individual lasers less sensitive to manufacturing defects, improving production yield and allowing the architecture to scale more efficiently as volumes increase. The platform is designed to deliver high wavelength counts with up to 40 mW of optical power per wavelength per fiber while enabling production across multiple indium phosphide foundries.
Manufacturing Shift
Today's high-power laser supply chain was largely built for telecom and subsea networks, where volumes are far lower. AI could transform the laser from a specialist photonics component into something that has to be manufactured at semiconductor scale. Photon Bridge has designed its technology around manufacturing yield, a consideration that becomes increasingly important as laser production moves toward the scale required by AI infrastructure.
Leadership Comments
Paul Marchal, CEO of Photon Bridge, said AI is fundamentally changing the way computing infrastructure is built. He explained that as systems scale to hundreds of thousands of processors, moving data between them is becoming a defining constraint on performance. Marchal added that optics must move closer to compute, but this creates an entirely different manufacturing challenge that the company is designed to meet.
Investor Perspectives
Ion Hauer, Investment Partner at APEX Ventures, said every new wave of compute creates new bottlenecks further down the supply chain, and lasers are the next one. He noted that Photon Bridge addresses this with deep photonics expertise and a credible path toward manufacturing at very large scale. Cesare Maifredi, Partner at 360 Capital, added that AI is turning lasers from a telecom component into a semiconductor-scale product where manufacturing yield becomes fundamental.
Funding and Commercialization
The new capital will allow Photon Bridge to accelerate product development, complete customer qualification processes, and prepare for volume manufacturing at scale. The company expects to deliver its first samples in 2027 and to be ready for high-volume production beginning in 2028. Photon Bridge will also expand its team in Eindhoven, adding technical and commercial capabilities as it moves further toward full commercialization.
Photon Bridge's €10 million round reflects growing investor confidence in optical interconnect technology for AI data centers. The company's architecture addresses both performance and manufacturability at a time when optical connections are moving closer to AI processors. By preparing for volume manufacturing from 2028, Photon Bridge aims to meet the expected surge in demand for laser sources in next-generation AI infrastructure.