Austin-based photonics startup Neurophos has raised $110 million in a Series A funding round to accelerate development of optical computing technology aimed at reducing the energy demands of large-scale AI inference. The round was led by Gates Frontier, with participation from M12, Carbon Direct, Aramco Ventures, Bosch Ventures, and others.
Spun out of Duke University and incubated by Metacept, Neurophos was co-founded by Patrick Bowen to commercialize a metasurface-based optical processing unit designed to perform core AI matrix operations more efficiently than silicon GPUs. The company says its approach enables significantly higher performance per watt for inference workloads. Neurophos plans to use the funding to build data center–ready photonic compute systems and expand engineering operations in Austin and San Francisco, targeting initial chip availability by 2028.
Featured image: Credit: Neurophos
