A photonic computing company that builds silicon-photonics interconnect chips and light-engine technology to move data faster and more efficiently between GPUs in AI data centers and supercomputers.
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Pivoted commercial focus from photonic AI compute (Envise) to photonic interconnects for AI data centers (Passage), joining NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion ecosystem in 2025-2026. The circulating '$12.5B IPO complete' claim is definitively unconfirmed: a direct SEC EDGAR check (CIK 0001768622) shows no S-1 filing and nothing since an Oct 25 2024 Form D; no tier-1 outlet has any 2026 story about a Lightmatter IPO or that valuation. The claim traces to internally-contradictory pre-IPO marketplace sites (one of which elsewhere on its own site says Lightmatter has no confirmed IPO plans). No new funding round found since the Oct 2024 Series D -- consistent with the CEO's statement that it was 'probably our last private funding round,' and with a 2024 CFO hire from Nvidia's IR team widely read as IPO-readiness staffing. IPO still expected post-2026, per that same statement, but no filing exists yet.
Low: Revelio Labs, Mar 2026. High: Tracxn, Aug 2026.
As of 2026-09-13 · live via greenhouse's public job board · ≈17.8% of the 334–372 estimated team
+4 more roles across 3 other teams.
See all open roles at Lightmatter →Lightmatter builds silicon-photonics chips that use light, drawing on MIT research showing a programmable mesh of interferometers performing the matrix multiplications of a neural network. Its first line was photonic compute hardware, Envise; its second, Passage, is an optical interconnect between chips and accounts for all of its product announcements since 2024.
| Date | Type | What |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 2, 2026 | Milestone | Joined NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion programme; it had joined the UALink consortium on December 18, 2024 |
| Mar 11, 2026 | Milestone | L20 optical engine and vClick detachable fibre unit announced; the company also reported 1.6 Tbps per fibre |
| Jan 26, 2026 | Milestone | Guide laser light engine announced |
| Apr 9, 2025 | Milestone | Nature paper by 42 authors describes a photonic processor running ResNet, BERT and an Atari reinforcement-learning algorithm |
| Mar 31, 2025 | Milestone | Passage M1000 3D photonic interposer, which the company says carries 114 Tbps over 256 fibres, and Passage L200 co-packaged optics announced |
| 2025 | Paper | Universal photonic artificial intelligence acceleration |
| Nov 14, 2024 | Milestone | Packaging partnerships with Amkor and ASE announced |
| May 2023 | Milestone | The company, whose compute hardware is named Envise with Idiom software, said it had several pilots under way |
| Oct 27, 2020 | Milestone | Passage announced as a wafer-scale programmable photonic interconnect; the company described 1 Tbps links among 48 chips with 5 ns maximum latency |
| Aug 2020 | Milestone | Carl Ramey presented Mars at Hot Chips 32, a multi-chip device with core computations performed optically in silicon photonics |
| 2020 | Paper | Silicon Photonics for Artificial Intelligence Acceleration |
| Nov 22, 2019 | Patent filed | US 11,093,215 Linear photonic processors and related methods |
| Mar 6, 2019 | Patent filed | US 11,036,002 Photonic communication platform |
| Nov 2, 2018 | Patent filed | US 11,860,666 Matrix multiplication using optical processing |
| May 15, 2018 | Patent filed | US 10,763,974 Photonic processing systems and methods |
| 2017 | Milestone | Nature Photonics paper co-authored by Harris showed a programmable interferometer mesh performing a neural network's matrix multiplications with light |
| 2017 | Milestone | Lightmatter founded at MIT by Nicholas Harris, Darius Bunandar and Thomas Graham |
| 2017 | Paper | Deep learning with coherent nanophotonic circuits |
| Jun 6, 2014 | Patent filed | US 10,359,272 Programmable photonic processing |
| Jun 2014 | Milestone | Priority date of the MIT patent 'Programmable photonic processing', on which Nicholas Harris is an inventor |
Patents. One listed patent is still displayed as assigned to MIT, and TechCrunch reported in 2023 that MIT licenses the relevant patents to the company; the company's own patents cover photonic processing, optical matrix multiplication, linear photonic processors and a photonic communication platform.
No acquisitions on record.
Lightmatter was founded in 2017 at MIT by Nicholas Harris (CEO), Darius Bunandar (chief scientist) and Thomas Graham, first based in Boston and now headquartered in Mountain View. The technology comes from MIT photonics research: a 2017 Nature Photonics paper co-authored by Harris, from before the company, showed a programmable mesh of Mach-Zehnder interferometers performing the matrix multiplications of a neural network with light. The MIT patent 'Programmable photonic processing' (priority June 2014), on which Harris is an inventor, is still displayed by Google Patents as assigned to MIT; TechCrunch reported in 2023 that MIT licenses the relevant patents to the company, and Lightmatter pledged it in a security agreement recorded in December 2022 and later released. In February 2019 the company announced a $22 million Series A-1 led by GV, taking its Series A to $33 million.
The first product line was compute. At Hot Chips 32 in August 2020 Carl Ramey presented 'Mars', a multi-chip device in which the core computations are performed optically in silicon photonics. Lightmatter later named its compute hardware Envise, with Idiom software, and in May 2023 said it had several pilots under way. A Nature paper published April 9, 2025 by 42 authors, including Bunandar and Harris, describes a photonic processor running ResNet, BERT and an Atari reinforcement-learning algorithm; the authors state it reaches near-electronic precision for many workloads. The company's own compute patents include 'Photonic processing systems and methods' (priority May 2018), 'Matrix multiplication using optical processing' (November 2018) and 'Linear photonic processors and related methods' (November 2019).
The second line, Passage, is an optical interconnect and accounts for all of the company's product announcements since 2024. Announced October 27, 2020 as a wafer-scale programmable photonic interconnect, it was described by the company as giving 1 Tbps reconfigurable links among 48 chips with 5 ns maximum latency. The patent 'Photonic communication platform' (priority March 2019) was granted June 15, 2021. On March 31, 2025 Lightmatter announced Passage M1000, a 3D photonic interposer that it says carries 114 Tbps over 256 fibres on a platform above 4,000 mm2, and Passage L200 co-packaged optics in 32 and 64 Tbps versions; it presented M1000 at Hot Chips in August 2025. The Guide laser light engine followed on January 26, 2026, and the L20 optical engine and vClick detachable fibre unit on March 11, 2026, when the company also reported 1.6 Tbps per fibre.
Manufacturing is outsourced: the company says M1000 is built on GlobalFoundries' Fotonix silicon-photonics platform, and it announced packaging partnerships with Amkor and ASE on November 14, 2024. Lightmatter joined the UALink consortium on December 18, 2024 and NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion programme on June 2, 2026, and took part in an Open Compute Project co-packaged-optics initiative announced March 16, 2026 and formally launched August 13, 2026. It raised a $154 million Series C in May 2023 and a $400 million Series D on October 16, 2024. No acquisitions by Lightmatter were found.
Profile as of Sep 19, 2026.
| Round | Date | Valuation | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series D | 2024-10-16 | $4.4B+267% | T. Rowe Price Associates |
| Series C-2 | 2023-12-19 | $1.2B | GV (Google Ventures) and Viking Global Investors |
| Undisclosed round (SEC Form D) | 2019-02-11 | — | Not disclosed -- SEC Form D lists only the company's own officers/directors, not the investor(s) |
No upcoming rounds currently reported.
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| Vehicle | How you get exposure | Share of the vehicle | Who can buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| T. Rowe Price Science and Technology Fund Open-end mutual fund | Held directly | 0.27% of the fund | US investors, through a broker or directly from the manager. |
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| Status | S-1 Not Filed |
|---|---|
| Timing | post-2026 (per CEO) |
| Notes | CEO called the Oct 2024 Series D 'probably our last private funding round.' A widely-circulated '$12.5B IPO complete' claim is unconfirmed and likely fabricated (no SEC EDGAR filing exists). |
| Source | SEC EDGAR (CIK 0001768622, no S-1 found); Bloomberg, Oct 16 2024 (CEO quote) |
Polymarket/Kalshi rows are live market-implied odds, not a PrePost prediction; everything else is a cited news signal. PrePost doesn't publish its own IPO forecast.