Neurophos

Neurophos develops optical processing units (OPUs) that deliver GPU-level AI inference performance in a compact, energy-efficient form factor using optical computing and metamaterials technology. The company ExaOPS platform achieves 300 TOPS per watt, making it the most efficient AI chip on the planet, by performing in-memory matrix multiplications at light speed. Neurophos breakthrough technology compresses a full rack of GPU computing into the size and power draw of a single GPU through photonic tensor cores that the company made 10,000x smaller than conventional approaches, with elements required for ExaOPS speeds occupying just 1m x 1m. This represents a leap equivalent to 30 years of transistor scaling. The technology addresses the terawatt-scale compute demands of AI data centers, where achieving terawatt compute with GPUs would require over 1,000 nuclear plants and $20 trillion in GPU costs, while OPUs achieve the same with 100x fewer processing units and only 10 nuclear plants. A single tray with 8 OPUs delivers 2 ExaFLOPS of performance, faster than a 3,000-pound GPU rack, at just 10 kW power draw. Neurophos technology is protected by 300 patents, with evaluations beginning in 2026, first systems targeted for early 2028, and production ramp beginning mid-2028. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Neurophos has raised approximately $120 million in Series A funding from investors including M12 (Microsoft Venture Fund), Gates Frontier, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Aramco Ventures, MetaVC Partners, DNX Ventures, Carbon Direct Capital, Tectonic Ventures, Space Capital, Morgan Creek Capital Management, and Silicon Catalyst.

AI Infrastructure > Enabling Technologies > Hardware > Processors > AI Accelerators > Photonics Based,

Photonics > Photonic Integrated Circuits > Application-specific PICs > Photonic Computing > Artificial Intelligence > AI Accelerator,

Digital ICs > Microprocessors > Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning > Optical Processing Unit

College Wise > Duke University