UK-based photonic AI chip startup Olix Computing has closed a $312 million Series B round, valuing the company at $3.3 billion, up from approximately $1 billion just months ago when it raised $220 million in February 2026. The company, formerly known as Flux Computing, develops Optical Tensor Processing Units (OTPUs) that use light instead of electricity to process AI model calculations, eliminating the need for high-bandwidth memory, the expensive and supply-constrained component used by Nvidia. Founder James Dacombe, a 25-year-old Thiel Fellow, launched the company in March 2024 and now holds a stake valued at $3.3 billion roughly fifteen months after founding the venture. The round, backed by Hummingbird Ventures, Plural, Vertex Ventures, and Entrepreneurs First, brings total funding to over $300 million, with plans to expand into the US and Canada focused on AI infrastructure sovereignty. Risks remain significant as manufacturing photonic chips at scale with competitive yields remains an unsolved engineering challenge, though this technology is considered genuinely different from silicon-based alternatives.
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