Optical Interconnection: Over 3 billion yuan raised in financing, nearly 1 million yuan annual salary offered to recruit top talents
A source from the optical communications industry revealed to *Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily* that since the start of this year, some optical interconnection startups have significantly intensified their recruitment efforts for tape-out talents, with particular emphasis on technicians who have fully participated in one or two complete tape-out processes.
Founded only a few months ago, some startups have already secured financing close to 1 billion yuan; employees with only two to three years of work experience may receive job offers with an annual salary package approaching 1 million yuan.
Since the beginning of this year, financing and talent competition in the optical interconnection track have been heating up simultaneously.
Among them, Guanglian Xinke completed two rounds of financing in less than three months, with a total amount of nearly 1.5 billion yuan; Xinguangjie, launched in May this year, has successively completed multiple rounds of financing, and the recently disclosed cumulative amount of Pre-A and Series A rounds is close to 1 billion yuan; Xinjie Guanghe, founded in January this year, also completed a 100-million-yuan level seed round and a several-hundred-million-yuan angel round of financing within a few months.
According to incomplete statistics from reporters of *Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily*, since 2026, there have been 17 public financings in the domestic optical interconnection sector, with the total disclosed financing scale exceeding 3 billion yuan.
While capital is pouring in, the talent market is also witnessing changes. A source from the optical communications industry revealed to *Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily* that startups focused on optical interconnection have frequently issued recruitment invitations to employees of large enterprises this year, with talents related to chip tape-out drawing particularly high attention. Some practitioners who previously received an annual salary of about 500,000 yuan now get total annual salary offers close to 1 million yuan.
Leading Institutions Enter the Market Concentratedly
The financing boom of optical interconnection this year is first reflected in the changes in the list of investment institutions.
Publicly disclosed financing information shows that leading market-oriented institutions including HSG, GL Ventures, Legend Capital, Gaorong Ventures, and Qiming Venture Partners have made investments one after another, institutions with semiconductor investment experience such as Yuanhe Puhua and Yida Capital have participated in the layout, and capital with backgrounds of China Life Capital, China Merchants Capital, and local state-owned assets have also appeared in the financing lists of some enterprises.
Taking Guanglian Xinke as an example, institutions including HSG, GL Ventures and Legend Capital have continuously participated in its subsequent financing, Zhenzhi Ventures has laid out the enterprise since its early stage and has invested in three consecutive rounds. With the advancement of financing, new investors such as China Life Capital and China Merchants Capital have entered, further expanding the investor structure of the enterprise.
A similar situation also appeared in the financing of Xinguangjie. Its Pre-A and Series A financings disclosed at the end of September attracted nearly 20 institutions to participate; Huaying Capital, Glory Ventures III and Songhe Capital successively appeared in the investor lists of the two rounds; the angel round financing of Xinjie Guanghe was jointly led by Yuanhe Puhua and Yida Capital.
Funds of different types are densely present in the same track, and some institutions have even continuously made additional investments in a relatively short period of time.
Lighthouse Capital said in an interview with *Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily* that after the primary market rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2025, optical interconnection has gradually become a hot investment spot. Entering 2026, investment institutions have begun to compete for scarce teams and customer design introduction windows, and some capital has entered before the enterprise's revenue is realized on a large scale.
From the perspective of financing projects, capital does not only flow to newly established optical interconnection startups. Enterprises that have accumulated certain technical experience, such as Xinsulian, Guoke Guangxin and Xilian Guangxin, also obtained financing this year. Among them, Guoke Guangxin completed a several-hundred-million-yuan Series B+ round of financing in September, and the funds will be used for the R&D of next-generation high-speed silicon optical chips, as well as the construction of production capacity and delivery capabilities.
From early technical R&D to product verification and production capacity construction, enterprises at different development stages in the optical interconnection industrial chain have received capital attention.
While this round of financing is being implemented intensively, enterprises' demand for engineering talents is also increasing. For optical interconnection enterprises that are still in the R&D and customer verification stages, financing is not only used for technology development, but also continuous investment is required for tape-out, packaging, testing and subsequent product iteration. Engineers with complete project experience have thus become the targets of competition for some startups.
A source from the optical communications industry revealed to *Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily* that since the beginning of this year, some optical interconnection startups have significantly increased their recruitment efforts for tape-out talents. Some employees who have worked in large optical communications enterprises for only two or three years frequently receive recruitment invitations.
There is a direct cost consideration behind this. The source introduced that the cost of one chip tape-out may be close to 10 million yuan. Once there are design or process problems, the enterprise may need to re-tape out, which not only increases R&D expenditure, but also affects the progress of product verification. For startups, engineers with complete tape-out experience can identify potential problems in the design and process links with practical project experience, reducing the risk of repeated trial and error.
The above source said that technicians who have fully participated in one or two tape-out processes are currently very sought-after in the recruitment market. In the cases he came into contact with, practitioners who previously received an annual salary of about 500,000 yuan have received total annual salary offers close to 1 million yuan.
The changes in the talent market are only one aspect of the optical interconnection industry attracting attention in this round. From the perspective of investors, with the growth of AI computing power demand, the changes taking place in this track are far more than that.
Ecological Niche + Product
The fact that optical interconnection enterprises have attracted capital attention is closely related to the new requirements for data transmission efficiency put forward by AI computing power infrastructure.
Liu Jin, Partner of Yida Capital, told *Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily* that with the expansion of AI computing power scale, the demand for data exchange between chips continues to grow, traditional electrical interconnection faces challenges in bandwidth density, power consumption and other aspects, and optical interconnection thus gains new application space.
However, the new market demand does not mean that all related technologies have entered the mature application stage.
Lighthouse Capital said in the interview that there are differences in the industrialization progress of different technical directions in the current optical interconnection field. Among them, for CPO, leading manufacturers on the switch side have achieved mass production, OIO on the computing chip side is still in the relatively early verification stage, and optical interconnection involves network topology and resource scheduling, and the technical route has not yet fully converged.
As optical interconnection technology gradually extends to links closer to computing chips, investment institutions are also paying more attention to the commercial landing capabilities of enterprises, especially whether they can obtain support from core downstream customers in early product definition or mass production verification.
Therefore, in addition to the technical solution itself, the position of the enterprise in the downstream customer supply chain has also become an important consideration for investment institutions.
Liu Jin mentioned that with the increasing coupling degree of optical interconnection with GPU, advanced packaging and system architecture, in addition to focusing on product performance, cost and delivery capabilities, investment institutions pay more attention to whether enterprises can enter the supply chain of leading system manufacturers, whether they have optoelectronic co-design capabilities, and whether they can achieve stable mass production.
"Now, looking at the ecological niche is more important than looking at the product." He said.
In addition to entering the supply chain of leading customers, how to convert technical solutions into products that can be delivered stably is also an urgent problem for enterprises to solve.
Liu Jin pointed out that as the distance between the optical engine and the computing chip gets closer, related products involve multiple links such as optoelectronic co-design, advanced packaging, thermal management, and precision coupling. Compound teams with both optical and electronic technology backgrounds and mass production experience are still relatively scarce in China.
The requirements for product testing are also changing. Related testing demands extend from the traditional module level to the wafer level, bare die level and optoelectronic hybrid testing, and yield, reliability and maintainability have become important factors affecting the large-scale application of products.
"For the industrialization of optical interconnection, Demo focuses on parameters, mass production focuses on yield, and the moat focuses on the depth of customer verification." He concluded.
Since the beginning of this year, the financing scale and rhythm in the optical interconnection field have increased significantly, and some newly established enterprises have obtained financing of several hundred million yuan or even nearly 1 billion yuan. For these enterprises that have obtained capital support in advance, the subsequent progress of product R&D, customer introduction and actual delivery performance will gradually become the basis for measuring their commercialization progress.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily", author: Yu Shiqi, released with authorization from 36Kr.