Xili Optoelectronics has completed its Pre-A round of financing, with Lighthouse Capital acting as the exclusive financial advisor.
Recently, Xili Optoelectronics Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xili Optoelectronics"), a thin-film lithium niobate photonic chip platform company focusing on optical interconnection for AI data centers, officially announced the completion of its Pre-A round of financing. This round is led by Futeng Capital, with follow-on investments from Shanghai Future Industry Fund, Cornerstone Capital, Greater Bay Area Fund, Skyline Capital, Shenzhen Industrial Investment and listed company Zhihu Intelligent. Lighthouse Capital acts as the exclusive financial advisor.
The proceeds from this round of financing will be mainly used for continuous R&D of thin-film lithium niobate photonic chips and system-on-chip integration technologies, promoting iteration of core products, wafer-level process coordination and mass production verification, accelerating the company's cooperation with industry chain partners in AI data centers, optical modules, communication equipment and optoelectronic packaging & testing, and promoting the large-scale application of thin-film lithium niobate photonic chips in next-generation high-speed optical interconnection networks.
AI Computing Power Enters the Cluster Era, Optical Interconnection Becomes the Core Variable of Infrastructure
With the continuous growth of large model parameter scale and computing demand, AI computing power infrastructure is evolving from single-card and single-machine to 10,000-card and even 100,000-card level clusters. The key factor determining system efficiency has gradually shifted from the performance of a single computing chip to the collaboration of computing, storage and network. As the transmission rate continues to upgrade from 800G to 1.6T, 3.2T and higher, and the interconnection scope extends from inside the rack to data centers, industrial parks and cross-regional networks, bandwidth density, link energy consumption and transmission distance are becoming the core constraints for optical interconnection upgrading.
Among them, Scale Up emphasizes high bandwidth and low latency of intra-rack interconnection, Scale Out focuses on large-scale expansion and link energy efficiency inside data centers, and Scale Across puts forward higher requirements for loss, dispersion and optical signal-to-noise ratio in long-distance transmission. Thin-film lithium niobate, with ultra-high-speed electro-optic response, low driving voltage, low loss, high linearity and excellent thermal stability that can support key functions such as high-speed intensity modulation, coherent transmission and multi-wavelength light source generation, is becoming an important photonic material platform for supporting the next-generation AI optical interconnection upgrade.
From Scale Up to Scale Across, Build a Full-scenario Photonic Chip System
Xili Optoelectronics takes thin-film lithium niobate as its core technology platform, and forms a systematic product layout of multi-wavelength frequency comb light sources, high-speed electro-optic modulation chips, coherent IQ modulation and photonic engines around different transmission distances and interconnection architectures: Multi-wavelength frequency comb light sources are oriented to high-density parallel interconnection in racks, which helps reduce the number of discrete lasers and system complexity; High-speed electro-optic modulation chips meet the interconnection requirements of 400G, 1.6T and 3.2T data centers per wavelength, reducing system power consumption and heat dissipation pressure while increasing transmission rate; Coherent IQ modulation and photonic integration solutions are oriented to cross-computer room, park and metropolitan area interconnection, relying on the advantages of low insertion loss and high linearity to improve long-distance link capacity and transmission efficiency.
The above products share a unified thin-film lithium niobate material platform, wafer-level process system and chip design capabilities, which can realize cross-product reuse and rapid iteration of underlying technologies. With the accelerated evolution of 1.6T, 3.2T and higher-speed optical interconnection architectures, Xili Optoelectronics is expected to continuously expand its product coverage and commercialization space in key links of AI computing power interconnection relying on multi-product collaboration and system-level integration capabilities.
Attach Equal Importance to Original Innovation and Engineering Transformation, Promote TFLN to Large-scale Industrial Application
For underlying platform technologies such as thin-film lithium niobate, competitive barriers come not only from single-point performance breakthroughs, but also from long-term accumulation of multi-dimensional capabilities such as material understanding, wafer process, chip design, system architecture, engineering transformation and customer scenario definition.
Xili Optoelectronics is incubated by the global pioneer team of thin-film lithium niobate technology. Professor Wang Cheng, founder and chief scientist of the company, is one of the main global pioneers of thin-film lithium niobate photonic technology and the core inventor of thin-film lithium niobate electro-optic modulators. He holds a bachelor's degree in microelectronics from Tsinghua University and a doctorate in electronic engineering from Harvard University, studied under Professor Marko Lončar, an internationally renowned scholar in the field of lithium niobate photonics, and once participated in co-founding the thin-film lithium niobate photonic chip company HyperLight.
The company's core team has long been deeply engaged in thin-film lithium niobate technology, with more than 8 years of cooperation foundation, combining international cutting-edge scientific research capabilities and optical communication industry experience, covering key links such as material R&D, wafer-level process, photonic chip design, device engineering and packaging coordination. Relying on the accumulation of original innovation and system-level engineering transformation capabilities, Xili Optoelectronics is promoting thin-film lithium niobate from cutting-edge laboratory technology to large-scale industrial applications in the field of AI computing power interconnection.
Futeng Capital stated: "Futeng Capital has completed in-depth industrial layout along the iterative path of optical chip technology. Since the in-depth development stage of the silicon optical industry ecosystem, we have continuously tracked the evolution trend of interconnection of AI 10,000-card level computing power clusters, and believe that thin-film lithium niobate is the next-generation core photonic material that breaks the ceiling of rate and energy consumption of existing solutions, and we have also completed forward-looking layout of upstream wafer substrate and other companies in advance. The capabilities of Professor Wang Cheng and his team are different from the single device R&D entities in the industry. They have now built a complete industrial closed loop of material R&D, wafer collaborative processing and system product implementation, and completed on-site deployment in Hong Kong. The commercialization path has been verified by actual combat and has the foundation for large-scale replication. The company's products cover full-scenario computing power interconnection of racks, cross-computer rooms and metropolitan areas, and are simultaneously adapted to cutting-edge tracks such as 6G, low-altitude economy and quantum technology, with a clear medium and long-term growth path. This round of financing led by Shanghai State-owned Capital Parent Fund, in the future, we will also rely on the resources of Shanghai integrated circuit industrial cluster to provide empowerment from three dimensions: wafer manufacturing coordination, customer docking and industrial policy implementation, and simultaneously promote the docking of supporting resources of the Yangtze River Delta industrial cluster."
Shanghai Future Industry Fund stated: "Shanghai Future Industry Fund has long focused on technological innovation in the optical interconnection track. With the natural advantages of ultra-high bandwidth and extremely low optical loss, thin-film lithium niobate is one of the important technical routes to break the bottleneck of next-generation optical interconnection. The core team of Xili Optoelectronics comes from City University of Hong Kong and Harvard University, led by one of the global pioneers of thin-film lithium niobate technology, and has full-stack technical reserves in the fields of material understanding, device design and wafer-level processing. We look forward to the company accelerating the transformation of technological achievements and mass production implementation, building a thin-film lithium niobate photonic technology platform, and leading the upgrading of the next-generation optical interconnection industry."
Liu Chuanhong, Executive Director of Cornerstone Capital, said: "As a global leader in thin-film lithium niobate device technology, Xili Optoelectronics has achieved cross-generational leadership in many aspects such as modulation bandwidth, linearity and driving voltage. Whether it is the intergenerational evolution of optical modules from 1.6T to 3.2T, or the architecture upgrade of AI computing power clusters at the cross-domain interconnection level, it brings huge industrial opportunities. Cornerstone has long been optimistic about the optical communication industry and firmly recognizes the team of Xili Optoelectronics."
Zhang Qian, Founder of Skyline Capital, said: "We are optimistic about the application of thin-film lithium niobate chips in the fields of coherent communication, sinking coherent scenarios and high-speed data center communication. Xili Optoelectronics has profound accumulation and iteration in the R&D of thin-film lithium niobate optical devices, chips and processes. We believe that Xili Optoelectronics will become a rising star in the field of high-speed optical chips for optical communication in the near future."
Yang Xiaohu, Partner of Shenzhen Industrial Investment, said: "The core team of Xili Optoelectronics has full-stack capabilities from underlying processing technology, core device design to system-level photonic engines. With the exponential growth of computing power clusters in the future, traditional optical interconnection can no longer meet the triple requirements of bandwidth, power consumption and cost. The technological development of thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) is expected to bring a step breakthrough in optical interconnection capabilities and become the core platform of next-generation integrated photonic technology."
Xu Yinchuan, Managing Director of Lighthouse Capital, said: "We firmly recognize the material advantages of thin-film lithium niobate in high bandwidth, low power consumption and long-distance transmission, and highly recognize the systematic technology and product layout formed by Xili Optoelectronics relying on the global original innovation team, covering wafer process, high-speed modulation, multi-wavelength light source and system-level photonic engine. The company not only has the scientific research strength to continuously break through the technical upper limit, but also shows a clear path to promote product verification and industrialization implementation for real customer needs. It is one of the few teams in China that is expected to build global competitiveness in the key links of next-generation AI optical interconnection. Lighthouse Capital is honored to serve as the exclusive financial advisor for this round, and we look forward to continuing to accompany Xili Optoelectronics to accelerate product iteration and industrial collaboration, and grow into an important force for China's high-end photonic chips to enter the global market."
About Xili Optoelectronics
Xili Optoelectronics Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. was established in January 2025. It is a hard technology enterprise focusing on the R&D and industrialization of thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic chip platforms. The company is incubated by the global pioneer team of thin-film lithium niobate technology, and its core PhD team comes from Harvard University, City University of Hong Kong and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Taking thin-film lithium niobate as the core technical route, the company builds a platform-based technical system around wafer-level process, photonic chip design, device engineering and system-on-chip photonic engine integration, covering multi-layer interconnection scenarios such as Scale Up, Scale Out and Scale Across of AI data centers, and is committed to providing photonic chip solutions with high bandwidth, low power consumption and high integration for fields including AI computing power interconnection, next-generation optical communication, 6G wireless communication, optical computing and quantum technology.