'Shanghai took the lead': Lightelligence founder bets on optical computing for AI era

Silicon photonic chips will account for more than 30 percent of chips in computing centers within five years, up from less than 3 percent at present, according to Shen Yichen, founder of Shanghai-based optical computing firm Lightelligence.

Shen made the remarks in an interview on Wednesday, highlighting that the company is jointly deploying a 10,000-GPU supernode computing cluster in Shanghai, which is the country’s first large-scale commercial application of the technology.

Founded in 2017 by Shen, the company’s core technology originated in his doctoral research — the first paper to demonstrate the application of silicon photonics to artificial intelligence computing, published on the cover of Nature Photonics in 2017.

The company shifted its center of operations from Boston to Shanghai in 2020, citing three reasons: a complete integrated circuit industry that can "close the loop within a five-kilometer radius", strong local manufacturing capabilities for high-volume production, and Shanghai’s willingness to be an early adopter of new technologies.

"For an early-stage technology, people are usually hesitant to use it when it is first unveiled. But Shanghai took the lead," he said.

Shen identified photonics-electronics co-packaging technology as a key bottleneck for China’s silicon photonics industry. The system-level integration with boards and servers also requires faster iteration, he said.

Lightelligence currently employs nearly 300 people globally, with research and development staff members accounting for 70 percent. The company operates two main product lines: optical interconnect for more efficient GPU connections, and optical computing that uses photonic chips for high-density computation.

The company achieved its first revenue in 2023, with its annual income doubling each year since then. On April 28, the company went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with prices surging over 380 percent on the first day of trading.