From invisibility cloaks to AI chips: Neurophos raises $110M to build tiny optical processors for inferencing

Neurophos, an Austin-based startup, has developed a groundbreaking “metasurface modulator” that enables tiny optical processors capable of performing matrix-vector multiplication—an essential operation for AI inferencing—much faster and more efficiently than traditional silicon-based GPUs and TPUs. By miniaturizing optical transistors to a scale about 10,000 times smaller than conventional optical components, Neurophos can fit thousands of these modulators on a single chip, significantly boosting computational speed and energy efficiency. This innovation addresses key challenges in photonic computing, such as large component size and high power consumption due to digital-analog conversions, positioning Neurophos’s optical processing units (OPUs) as a promising alternative to silicon chips in AI data centers. The company recently raised $110 million in a Series A funding round led by Bill Gates’ venture firm Gates Frontier, with participation from Microsoft’s M12 and other investors. CEO Dr. Patrick Bowen claims that Neurophos’s OPUs will outperform Nvidia