Das weltweit größte Unicornunternehmen im Bereich der optischen Rechenchips plant einen Börsengang. Tencent und Baidu nehmen an der Investition teil.

According to a report by Zhidongxi on March 31st, on March 30th, Shanghai - based AI optical interconnection and optical computing unicorn Lightelligence officially submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Lightelligence's business can be traced back to 2017. At that time, Dr. Yichen Shen founded the business in the United States and China, aiming to use cutting - edge optical computing technology to establish efficient real - world connections and lay the foundation for AI.

High - speed interconnection is the key path to promote the expansion of AI computing power. In the field of optical interconnection and optical computing, Lightelligence leads both in global technology and commercialization. It has moved beyond the pilot stage and achieved the deployment of products and solutions in large - scale computing clusters.

As of December 31, 2025, the company had achieved commercial deployment with 44 customers, supporting several thousand - card GPU clusters and increasing the average model floating - point operation utilization (MFU) by more than 50%.

According to Frost & Sullivan, in terms of revenue in 2025, Lightelligence ranked second in the Chinese Scale - up optical interconnection market, and ranked first in the world in the cumulative shipment volume of optical computing chips.

As of March 23, 2026, Lightelligence is one of the few global and the first Chinese supplier with an optical interconnection super - node solution and has cumulatively deployed more than 5000 - card clusters.

The company also launched China's first xPU - CPO optoelectronic co - packaging prototype system, which co - packages the optical engine and the computing chip (xPU) on the same substrate to shorten the transmission distance.

Tencent, Shanghai CMCC Fund, and China Reform Holdings Corporation are the leading and senior independent investors of Lightelligence. Its investors also include Zhongke Chuangxing, Baidu Biwei under Baidu Group, etc.

After the Series C4 financing in 2025, its valuation reached 7.8 billion yuan.

01.

Founded by MIT doctors, with an annual revenue of over 100 million,

Both ICT giants and AI chip companies have placed orders

Lightelligence is an early and large - scale participant in the global optoelectronic hybrid computing power field. It uses core silicon - photonics technology to promote the industry's transformation from electrical computing to optical computing, driving innovation in the two fields of optical computing and optical interconnection.

Yichen Shen is the founder, chairman, executive director, and CEO of Lightelligence. He holds a doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In June 2017, he published a cover paper in the international top - tier academic journal Nature Photonics as the first author, proposing for the first time a method for deep learning using coherent nanophotonic circuits, which is widely regarded as a breakthrough in the field of optoelectronic hybrid computing power.

Dr. Huaiyu Meng, the co - founder, executive director, and CTO, holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his studies, he participated in the R & D of multiple core devices in the world's first on - chip optical network project as a core member. In 2018, he published a paper in the journal Nature, elaborating on the research results of integrating photonics and silicon nano - electronics to achieve a new - generation on - chip system.

In addition to the two founders who are committed to continuously expanding the boundaries of optoelectronic hybrid computing power technology, the core management team of Lightelligence has an average of more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. Team members have held important positions in well - known global semiconductor technology companies such as NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Spreadtrum, and Graphcore.

Its R & D department is led by Dr. Huaiyu Meng. As of March 23, 2026, it has a total of 174 employees, accounting for 67.2% of the total number of employees; it holds 150 authorized patents, of which about 80% are invention patents, and has 260 invention patents under application, more than half of which support both optical interconnection and optical computing.

According to Frost & Sullivan, Lightelligence has the largest patent portfolio among startups in the global optoelectronic hybrid computing power field.

In 2023, 2024, and 2025, Lightelligence's revenues were 38 million yuan, 60 million yuan, and 106 million yuan respectively, with net losses of 414 million yuan, 735 million yuan, and 1.342 billion yuan respectively, and R & D expenses of 280 million yuan, 352 million yuan, and 479 million yuan respectively.

▲ Changes in Lightelligence's revenue, net profit, and R & D expenditure from 2023 to 2025 (Charted by Zhidongxi)

During the same period, the comprehensive gross profit margins were 60.7%, 53.5%, and 39.0% respectively.

Lightelligence is still in the early stage of monetization and commercialization, mainly focusing on the development of optoelectronic hybrid computing power technology. It has moved beyond the pilot stage and achieved the deployment of specialized technology products.

Its revenue growth in 2024 was due to the first mass - production of a Scale - up product, and the revenue growth in 2025 was also due to the first mass - production of its Scale - up product.

Lightelligence's optical interconnection revenue mainly comes from the sales of Scale - up and Scale - out products. From 2024 to 2025, the revenue of Scale - up products accounted for more than 70%.

The selling price of Scale - up products has increased. At the same time, the company has invested more resources in R & D of products with higher performance, more functions, and wider market applications, such as the newly developed Scale - up OCS, which was put into mass production in December 2025 and has become the main product driving the annual revenue growth in 2025.

Its optical interconnection products and services are mainly deployed in data centers as AI infrastructure, including the construction of super - nodes; optical computing products and services were initially mainly used in scientific research scenarios. Since 2025, optical computing hardware has been directly used in commercial AI infrastructure.

Lightelligence's consolidated balance sheet is as follows:

The cash flow is as follows:

Lightelligence has a solid revenue reserve and is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the near future.

Specifically, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Lightelligence received multiple purchase orders from a major Chinese communication equipment and ICT infrastructure supplier (including about 8200 Scale - up OCS modules) and an AI computing chip developer (including about 2000 Scale - up OCS modules),

all involving Lightelligence's Scale - up OCS solution, with a total value of about 87.3 million yuan.

These purchase orders were initially delivered and accepted at the end of 2025 and are expected to be fully completed in 2026. According to the current delivery and acceptance schedule, 56% of the total contract value (excluding VAT) was recognized as revenue in 2025, and the remaining 44% is expected to be recognized as revenue in 2026.

In addition, Lightelligence has signed multiple framework agreements and letters of intent with several well - known customers for the purchase of optical computing products and optical interconnection solutions.

Among these customers, at least 5 are listed companies, and the rest are leading enterprises in their respective industries. All customers are reputable companies and independent third - parties. According to the relevant letters of intent, most of the purchase amounts are expected to be realized in 2026 and 2027, indicating a strong commercialization momentum.

In addition, Lightelligence has reached more than 15 design - in cooperation agreements with multiple GPU manufacturer partners for its Scale - up optical interconnection products and does not rely on any single partner. The cooperation is at different stages from initial exploration to mature implementation.

02.

Ranking first in the world in the shipment volume of optical computing chips

The prospectus shows that the demand for AI interconnection products in China is much higher than in other regions, reflecting China's strong momentum in the field of AI development. The rapid expansion of China's AI computing and interconnection market provides broad commercialization opportunities for next - generation technologies such as optical interconnection and optical computing.

According to Frost & Sullivan, as of 2025, the market penetration rate of optical computing chips in China's AI inference chips was less than 0.5%, and it is expected to reach 20% by 2040. By 2031, the market sizes of China's Scale - up optical interconnection and optical computing are expected to reach 270.4 billion yuan and 2.546 billion yuan respectively.

Lightelligence is expected to gain a first - mover advantage in the global optoelectronic hybrid computing power market.

1. Optical interconnection

Scale - up optical interconnection technology is designed for Scale - up connections between chips and is a high - speed data transmission technology.

Large - scale optical interconnection products mainly include Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO), Near - Package Optics (NPO), Co - Packaged Optics (CPO), and Optical Circuit Switching (OCS).

LPO uses a simplified linear drive architecture and is currently the mainstream solution for long - distance inter - board and inter - cabinet connections in super - nodes.

NPO brings the optical engine closer to the computing or switching chip, shortening the electrical wiring distance, improving signal integrity and transmission efficiency, and is an important transitional form towards CPO.

CPO tightly integrates the optical engine with the switch ASIC or AI accelerator chip in the same package or substrate, achieving the highest bandwidth density and lowest energy consumption, and is regarded as the core solution for the next - generation ultra - large - scale clusters.

OCS realizes large - scale switching and traffic scheduling between computing nodes through all - optical cross - connections. Compared with traditional electrical switching, it has lower power consumption and greater port expansion capabilities, thus supporting the network interconnection of ultra - large - scale AI computing clusters.

Compared with electrical interconnection solutions, optical solutions have lower latency, higher bandwidth, and higher energy efficiency.

Lightelligence's optical interconnection solutions are used to improve the computing power within a single server or