A startup project affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences has raised tens of millions in just six months since its establishment, focusing on CPO and OIO optical engines | Exclusive from 36Kr

Author | Ou Xue

Editor | Yuan Silai

Hard Kr (HKr) has learned that Beijing Lingxi Photonics Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lingxi Photonics"), an enterprise focusing on 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, Shuimu Venture 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 used for the prototype development of 3.2T/6.4T optical engines 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 in the United States for his doctoral degree. He serves as a researcher at XIOPM and a doctoral supervisor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and he was formerly a research scientist at Hewlett - Packard Laboratories in the United States. The company's core team members come from XIOPM, other top domestic research institutions, and chief scientists of global technology giants.

The company focuses on the independent and collaborative development of silicon photonic chips based on microring modulators and CMOS analog electrical chips, and combines advanced packaging technologies for optoelectronic chips 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.

HKr has 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. In this context, 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 size 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 trend, Lingxi Photonics has launched its core product - the silicon photonic engine based on microring modulators. This solution has significant advantages such as small 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 it is particularly suitable for advanced packaging with GPU and Switch chips," Wang Binhao told HKr.

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 the optical chip (Source/Enterprise)

Measured multi - channel eye diagram of the 16x256 Gb/S PAM4 array (Source/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 field where we have a complete opportunity to compete with international peers on an equal footing," Wang Binhao said. "There may be domestic teams with some technical accumulations in certain aspects, but few teams, like ours, have mastered 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 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 photonic processes, and the electrical chips are mainly analog circuits, neither of which rely on advanced processes below 7nm. Currently, mainstream domestic foundries already have the corresponding mass - production capabilities.

Physical object of co - packaged optoelectronic chips (Source/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 said. This strategy effectively reduces the dependence on the external supply chain and guarantees 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 targeting the Scale - Out co - packaged scenarios 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 - packaged requirements of computing chips such as GPUs/NPUs, and the prototype demo is planned to be completed in 2027.

"The parallel solution has a faster commercialization pace, while DWDM is designed for higher bandwidth density and longer - term computing power evolution needs," Wang Binhao summarized.

Views from investors:

Shunxi Fund said: 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 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 the fields of microring - based optical I/O design, optoelectronic hybrid integration, and microring wavelength design. We are optimistic about the company growing into a leading company in the next - generation silicon photonics field.

Puhua Capital said: With a profound understanding of the industry and rich experience in the capital market, Puhua Capital has established a "capital + industry" dual - wheel - driven strategy, committed to investing in early - stage, innovative, specialized, and high - growth enterprises, acting as a nurturer and supporter of entrepreneurship and innovation, and continuously investing in and supporting the development of more than 700 startup companies. Lingxi Photonics focuses on the microring - based optical engine technology and has a solid theoretical foundation and the richest practical experience in the optical I/O field. We look forward to the company leveraging its technical accumulation and industrial collaboration in the future, continuously playing a leading role in the large - scale commercialization of silicon photonic technologies and the reconstruction of the industrial chain value, seizing the opportunity for China in the global silicon photonics industry competition, and injecting core impetus into the technological upgrading of AI data centers, next - generation communications, and other fields.

Shuimu Venture Capital said: 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, and its performance reaches the domestic leading level. In the future, we will continuously support the company's development and expect the company to grow into a leading enterprise in the industry.

Zhongke Chuangxing said: During the period of rapid expansion of investment in computing infrastructure, large - scale 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 directions in the future, with huge potential market space. Lingxi Photonics' microring - based solution has advantages such as high integration, high bandwidth density, and low power consumption, and it has also received in - depth support from potential industrial resources and partners. The core founding team is from XIOPM, with long - term technical accumulation and forward - looking layout, and it is a team in China with a solid theoretical foundation and the richest practical experience in the fields of optical I/O and optical frequency combs. We are optimistic about the team's accumulation and the technical route they have adopted and are firmly committed to investment and layout.

Lishi Venture Capital said: Along with the wave of building AI computing centers at home and abroad, the scale of computing clusters is continuously increasing, and the importance of network interconnection is becoming more and more prominent. Traditionally, the Scale - Up domain mainly uses electrical connections, and the Scale - Out domain mainly uses optical modules for connection. However, super - nodes make electrical connections increasingly challenging, and there are also power - consumption issues with optical modules. The industry urgently needs 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, mastering the complete set of technologies for silicon photonic microring optical engines and having both rich research and industrialization capabilities. It is expected to lead the development of the domestic optical interconnection industry. Lishi is firmly optimistic about the Lingxi team and the company's future development and looks forward to it bringing innovative products and solutions to the market.