€10m · Other round · Deeptech · Eindhoven, Netherlands
Eindhoven-based Photon Bridge has raised €10m to develop and qualify multi-wavelength laser sources for AI data centres. The company said new investors Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and 360 Capital co-led the round, while Innovation Industries, Faber and Brabant Development Agency (BOM) increased their investment. The capital will support product development, customer qualification, first samples in 2027, preparations for volume manufacturing from 2028 and team growth in Eindhoven.
Laser yield becomes an AI infrastructure problem
AI accelerators only work as a cluster when they can exchange data quickly enough. As those clusters grow, optical links are moving closer to the processors, increasing demand for the lasers that generate their light. Photon Bridge is developing external laser sources that combine and multiplex light from several lower-power semiconductor lasers rather than relying on a smaller number of very high-power devices. The company says the design can deliver up to 40 mW per wavelength per fibre and can be manufactured through multiple indium-phosphide foundries.
The architecture makes manufacturing yield part of the product proposition. Lower power density should make each laser less sensitive to defects, while combining wavelengths can preserve aggregate optical output. That matters commercially because a source designed for telecom volumes may not translate cleanly to the much larger quantities expected for AI infrastructure. Photon Bridge still has to prove that its approach can meet reliability, cost and consistency requirements across foundries and packaging partners, but spreading production across qualified suppliers could reduce dependence on a single fabrication route.
Qualification is the next milestone
Photon Bridge reported a technical step in February: more than 30 mW of output per colour at wafer scale in continuous-wave operation at room temperature. It said the platform integrates lasers and wavelength filters on one silicon-photonic circuit, uses established commercial foundries and is compatible with outsourced semiconductor assembly and test flows. Those are company-reported results, not evidence of volume production; the funding announcement places first samples in 2027 and volume-manufacturing preparation in 2028.
The company previously operated as PHOTON IP and raised €4.75m in January 2025 to industrialise its photonic-integration technology. Three investors from that round are returning here, while the new co-leads add early-stage deeptech capital. The next evidence point is therefore customer qualification: samples must move from measured performance into repeatable components that data-centre equipment makers can integrate, test and buy at scale.
Explore this theme
AI hardware: Where the next opportunities are emerging — Synaptic, adapted by EUVC · 16 October 2026. The article places photonic systems within the wider AI compute stack and examines the manufacturing, capital and adoption risks that hardware companies must clear.
