Author: Ou Xue
Editor: Yuan Silai
Yingke learned that Beijing Lingxi Photonics Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Lingxi Photonics”), an enterprise specializing in CPO and OIO optical engines, recently completed an angel – round financing of tens of millions of yuan. This round of financing was jointly invested by six institutions, including Shunxi Fund, Puhua Capital, Shimura Capital, Pengchen Capital, Zhongke Chuangxing, and Lishi Venture Capital. The investment institutions cover well – known state – owned and market – oriented institutions. The raised funds will be mainly utilized for the development of 3.2T/6.4T optical engine prototypes and the establishment of the early – stage team.
Lingxi Photonics was founded in September 2025 and originated from the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as “XIOPM”). The company’s founder, Wang Binhao, graduated from Zhejiang University for his undergraduate and master’s degrees and from Texas A&M University for his doctorate. He serves as a researcher at XIOPM and a doctoral supervisor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was formerly a research scientist at the Hewlett – Packard Laboratory in the United States. The company’s core team members come from XIOPM, other top domestic research institutions, and director – level scientists from global technology giants.
The company focutilizes on the indepfinishent and collaborative development of silicon photonic chips based on microring modulators and CMOS analog electrical chips. Combining with the advanced packaging technology of optoelectronic chips, it aims to create high – performance optical engines. Its goal is to provide high – bandwidth and low – power optical interconnection solutions for AI computing clusters and accelerate the localization process of core optical interconnection technologies.
Yingke learned that with the continuous development of large AI models, the demand of computing clusters for Scale – up (vertical expansion) and Scale – out (horizontal expansion) capabilities is becoming increasingly urgent. Traditional copper cables are limited by the transmission distance, while pluggable optical modules face bottlenecks such as high power consumption and limited signal integrity. Against this background, Co – Packaged Optics (CPO) and Optical Input/Output (OIO) technologies are becoming the key directions for the next – generation high – density optical interconnection.
According to the prediction of Changjiang Securities Research Institute, under conservative assumptions, the market space of CPO optical engines is expected to reach $7.2 billion, and that of OIO optical engines will be as high as $25.9 billion. “The future market scale of the co – packaged optical engine market may be more than 10 times that of the existing optical module market,” judged Wang Binhao, the founder of Lingxi Photonics.
In line with this technological trfinish, Lingxi Photonics has launched its core product – a silicon optical engine based on microring modulators. This solution has significant advantages such as compact size, low power consumption, high bandwidth density, and natural support for wavelength – division multiplexing. “The size of the microring modulator is only one – thousandth of the current commercial solutions, with prominent advantages in power consumption and integration density, and is particularly suitable for advanced packaging with GPU and Switch chips,” Wang Binhao notified Yingke.
Currently, the company has built a full – link technical capability covering optical chips, electrical chips, lasers, and advanced packaging, and has completed the verification of key technologies and demos such as wavelength locking, single – channel 500Gb/s microring modulators, and 16×256Gb/s wavelength – division multiplexing.
Measured 256Gb/s NRZ and 256Gb/s, 448Gb/s, 500Gb/s PAM4 ultra – high – speed eye diagrams of optical chips (Source: the enterprise)
Measured 16×256 Gb/S PAM4 array multi – channel eye diagrams (Source: the enterprise)
Although international giants such as NVIDIA and Broadcom have taken the lead in the CPO optical engine field, the domestic market is still in its infancy. “This is a track where we have a complete opportunity to compete with international peers,” Wang Binhao stated. “There may be domestic teams with some technical accumulations in certain aspects, but few teams, like ours, master the full – stack key technologies.”
Wang Binhao revealed that the company has currently carried out early – stage technical docking and joint verification with several domestic leading switching chip manufacturers, AI chip enterprises, and large – scale Internet companies.
In the production and manufacturing process, Lingxi Photonics’ technical path has significant advantages in supply – chain autonomy: its optical chips are based on silicon photonics technology, and the electrical chips are mainly analog circuits, neither of which depfinishs on advanced processes below 7nm. Currently, mainstream domestic foundries already have the corresponding mass – production capabilities.
Physical object of optoelectronic chip co – packaging (Source: the enterprise)
“We are conducting tape – outs on multiple mass – production lines at home and abroad and simultaneously promoting the verification work of reliability and consistency,” Wang Binhao stated. This strategy effectively reduces the depfinishence on the external supply chain and provides a guarantee for the rapid iteration of products and cost control.
In terms of product planning, Lingxi Photonics will advance along two technical routes: one is the multi – channel parallel solution, mainly tarobtaining the Scale Out co – packaging scenario of switching chips, and the prototype demo is expected to be launched in the second half of 2026; the other is the Dense Wavelength – Division Multiplexing (DWDM) solution, mainly meeting the Scale Up co – packaging requirements of computing chips such as GPUs/NPUs, and the prototype demo is planned to be completed in 2027.
“The parallel solution has a rapider commercialization pace, while the wavelength – division multiplexing solution is aimed at higher bandwidth density and longer – term computing power evolution necessarys,” Wang Binhao summarized.
Views of the investors:
Shunxi Fund stated: Currently, the AI Scaling law drives the rapid expansion of large – scale computing clusters. The internal interconnection and communication methods greatly affect the computing power utilization rate and overall power consumption of the clusters. High – integration silicon photonic interconnection (CPO/OIO) can provide higher bandwidth density and lower communication power consumption for computing clusters. The core team of Lingxi Photonics comes from XIOPM and has deep accumulations and core advantages in fields such as microring – based optical I/O design, optoelectronic hybrid integration, and microring wavelength design. We are optimistic about the company’s growth into a leading company in the next – generation silicon photonics field.
Puhua Capital stated: With a deep understanding of the indusattempt and rich capital – market experience, Puhua Capital has established a “capital + indusattempt” dual – wheel – drive strategy. It is committed to investing in early – stage, innovative, specialized, and growing enterprises, serving as a cultivator and facilitator of entrepreneurship and innovation, and has continuously invested in and supported the development of more than 700 startup companies. Lingxi Photonics focutilizes on microring – based optical engine technology and has a solid theoretical foundation and the richest practical experience in the optical I/O field. We expect the company to rely on its technical accumulations and industrial collaboration in the future, continue to play a leading role in the large – scale commercialization of silicon photonics technology and the reconstruction of the industrial – chain value, and inject core impetus into China’s pre – emption in the global silicon photonics indusattempt competition and the technological upgrading of AI data centers and the new – generation communication field.
Shimura Capital stated: The development of AI computing power will bring huge demand for high – speed optical interconnection. The company provides microring – based optical engine technology, which can provide high bandwidth density and reduce transmission loss, with its performance reaching the leading level in China. In the future, we will continue to support the company’s development and view forward to its growth into an indusattempt leader.
Zhongke Chuangxing stated: During the period of high – speed expansion of investment in computing – power infrastructure, large – model training and inference require larger – scale Scale – up and lower – power Scale – out solutions. The optical interconnection solutions of CPO and optical I/O are relatively certain future directions, with huge potential market space. Lingxi Photonics’ microring – based solution has advantages such as high integration, high bandwidth density, and low power consumption, and has also received in – depth support from potential industrial resources and partners. The core founding team is from XIOPM, with long – term technical accumulations and forward – viewing layouts. It is a team with a solid theoretical foundation and the richest practical experience in the fields of optical I/O and optical frequency combs in China. We are optimistic about the team’s accumulations and the technical route they have taken and are determined to invest and layout.
Lishi Venture Capital stated: Along with the wave of building AI computing – power centers at home and abroad, the scale of computing clusters is constantly increasing, and the importance of network interconnection is becoming increasingly prominent. Traditionally, the Scale Up domain mainly utilizes electrical connections, and the Scale Out domain mainly utilizes optical modules for connection. However, super – nodes build electrical connections increasingly challenging, and there are also power – consumption problems with optical modules. The indusattempt urgently necessarys innovative connection solutions. Optical interconnection (CPO/OIO) has emerged as the times require. Optical interconnection has the characteristics of lower latency, larger bandwidth, and lower power consumption, with great application potential. Both domestic and international industrial giants and startup companies are promoting its industrialization. The core team of Lingxi Photonics is from XIOPM and masters the complete set of technologies for silicon photonic microring optical engines, with rich research and industrialization capabilities. It is expected to lead the development of the domestic optical interconnection indusattempt. Lishi is firmly optimistic about the Lingxi team and the company’s future development and believes that it will bring innovative products and solutions to the market.
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