Solinide closes €4M to commercialise photonic chips for AI data centres

Swedish deeptech firm Solinide Photonics has secured €4 million in seed funding to bring its silicon nitride photonic integrated circuit technology to market and support scalable manufacturing. The investment was co-led by Navigare Ventures and PSV Hafnium, with additional support from Chalmers Ventures, Turbine Capital, Norrsken Evolve, and Almi Greentech Fund.

As a spin-off from Chalmers University of Technology, Solinide focuses on developing photonic chips and microcomb technology for optical interconnects within AI data centres. The goal is to handle the increasing data demands without a proportional rise in power consumption, which is a major hurdle for AI infrastructure.

Traditionally, conventional optical systems use multiple lasers to transmit data, leading to increased power consumption, cost, and physical footprint. Solinide's technology eliminates the need for multiple laser sources by enabling a single chip to generate dozens of precise wavelengths of light simultaneously. By achieving this, the technology allows more data to travel through each optical fibre while simultaneously reducing energy consumption, cost, and footprint for optical connections.

Solinide's microcomb technology has already proven its capability to meet the performance standards required for data centre links and has been integrated into an integrated rack-mounted system. The company is now focused on achieving commercial readiness and preparing for real-world deployment.

CEO Marcello Girardo emphasized the company's intention to prepare for commercial launch and real-world deployment in the near future. The funding will be utilized to bolster Solinide's engineering and commercial teams, enhance in-house prototyping capabilities, and facilitate manufacturing in Europe. Furthermore, Solinide plans to strengthen its collaboration with strategic industry partners to accelerate market adoption.