Photon Bridge raises €10 million for AI laser sources
Eindhoven, 21 October 2026. Photon Bridge has raised €10 million to address what it describes as an emerging bottleneck in AI infrastructure: producing the millions of lasers needed to connect growing clusters of AI processors. The Eindhoven, the Netherlands-based company develops laser sources for optical interconnects in AI datacenters.
The round was co-led by new investors the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and 360 Capital. Existing investors Innovation Industries, Faber, and Brabant Development Agency (BOM) also increased their investment.
Photon Bridge cites forecasts from Omdia that more than 20 million data-center AI accelerators will ship annually by 2028. As clusters grow from thousands to hundreds of thousands of processors, moving data between chips is becoming one of the fundamental constraints on performance. Goldman Sachs Research expects the addressable market for optical networking to expand ninefold to $154 billion by 2028.
The company says today's high-power laser supply chain was largely built for telecom and subsea networks, where volumes are far lower. Its design combines and multiplexes light from multiple lower-power semiconductor lasers rather than using a small number of increasingly powerful lasers. Lower power densities make individual lasers less sensitive to manufacturing defects, which the company says improves production yield. The platform is designed to deliver high wavelength counts with up to 40 mW of optical power per wavelength per fiber, and to enable production across multiple indium phosphide (InP) foundries.
The financing will allow Photon Bridge to accelerate product development and customer qualification, deliver its first samples in 2027, and prepare for volume manufacturing from 2028. The company will also expand its team in Eindhoven as it moves towards commercialization.
Source: Photon Bridge news