# OLIX Computing Raises $312M Series B for Photonic AI Inference Chips

> OLIX Computing, a two-year-old chip startup, has raised a $312M Series B at a $3.3B valuation, the largest semiconductor funding round Europe has seen. The money arrived on August 3 from an eclectic group: the UK's Sovereign AI venture fund, chip designer Arm, trading firm Hudson River Trading, Reed Hastings, and Fundomo among them. OLIX's pitch is to move AI inference off copper wires and onto light. Its Optical Tensor Processing Units use photonic, light-based interconnects instead of electrical ones, aiming to sidestep the energy and speed bottlenecks that plague conventional accelerators as models grow. First chips are not due to reach customers until the second half of 2027. Nearly every AI headline right now leans on Nvidia-style silicon, so a nine-figure European bet on a fundamentally different physics is notable. The UK government's direct backing also underscores how sovereign compute has become a strategic priority, with nations increasingly unwilling to leave the hardware layer of AI entirely to American firms.

_Section: [AI Funding Tracker](https://www.wortins.com/funding) · Source: Data Center Dynamics · Published Monday, August 10, 2026_

## Wortins' read

OLIX Computing, a two-year-old chip startup, has raised a $312M Series B at a $3.3B valuation, the largest semiconductor funding round Europe has seen. The money arrived on August 3 from an eclectic group: the UK's Sovereign AI venture fund, chip designer Arm, trading firm Hudson River Trading, Reed Hastings, and Fundomo among them. OLIX's pitch is to move AI inference off copper wires and onto light. Its Optical Tensor Processing Units use photonic, light-based interconnects instead of electrical ones, aiming to sidestep the energy and speed bottlenecks that plague conventional accelerators as models grow. First chips are not due to reach customers until the second half of 2027. Nearly every AI headline right now leans on Nvidia-style silicon, so a nine-figure European bet on a fundamentally different physics is notable. The UK government's direct backing also underscores how sovereign compute has become a strategic priority, with nations increasingly unwilling to leave the hardware layer of AI entirely to American firms.

## Source

[Read the full story at Data Center Dynamics](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/chip-startup-olix-raises-312m-at-33bn-valuation-backed-by-uk-govt-sovereign-ai-venture-fund/)

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