Light matterstartup that uses light to attach chips together and perform calculations for deep learning needed for artificial intelligence closed a $400 million Series D deal led by a recent investor T. Rowe Price at a valuation of $4.4 billion.
The recent round nearly quadruples its previous December valuation of $1.2 billion, following a $155 million raise led by G.V — which together with Fidelity Management and Research Co. also took part in the recent round.
While Big Tech is investing lots of of billions of dollars in recent AI data centers, Lightmatter is trying to resolve the energy consumption and scalability issues of these recent centers.
The company’s technology uses silicon photonics, which might speed up processes while using less energy. While the idea of using light in computing is not recent, creating components has long been a challenge.
Big money
The recent D Series is Lightmatter’s largest yet, but the Boston-based company is not recent to big raises. In May 2023, the startup locked in a $154 million raise and then prolonged the round in December.
Founded in 2017, Lightmatter has raised $850 million for the company.
Co-founder and CEO Nick Harris he told Reuters“This is probably our last round of private financing.”
Lightmatter’s wasn’t the only big raise this week by the photonics startup. Xscape Photonics — a New York startup also using photonics technology to deal with the energy, efficiency and scalability challenges of AI data centers — raised $44 million in Series A funding led by: IAG Capital Partners and due to investments from corporations resembling Cisco investments AND Nvidia.