PicoJool raises $28M Series A to unclog AI data center bandwidth

What's the deal? PicoJool, an optical chip startup backed by former IntelDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → chief executive Pat Gelsinger, has raised $27.5 million in a Series A round. Socratic PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → led, with participation from Hudson River TradingDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The round brings the company's total funding to $39.5 million.

What's the endgame? PicoJool builds chips based on Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) technology, a semiconductor laser diode that sends data as light through optical cables rather than copper wire. It says its optical modules speed up communication and cut energy use across large AI chip clusters.

Why now? As AI models grow, so do the GPU clusters running them — some spanning thousands of processors that constantly swap data. Traditional copper interconnects struggle to keep up and burn vast amounts of power, driving up the cost of AI.

PicoJool's products, including 100G and 200G VCSEL interconnects and lower-power MicroVCSEL configurations, promise connectivity up to 3.2 terabits per second. "Reaching 200G per lane proved that the performance is there," said founder and chief executive Al Yuen. "Our focus is now execution."

What's the money for? The funding will expand teams in the US and Taiwan, qualify products with customers, and push more of the portfolio toward commercialization. PicoJool is working with WIN SemiconductorsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and other foundries to prepare the 200G VCSEL for mass production.

This Series A follows a $12 million seed round last November, led by Gelsinger's firm Playground GlobalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. "The network is the AI, and connectivity is becoming one of the defining constraints on performance," Gelsinger said.

The signal: At $27.5 million, PicoJool's raise sits in the top 10% of all US semiconductor Series A rounds on record — a sign investors see connectivity, not compute, as the next bottleneck to clear in AI infrastructure.

Read more: siliconangle.com

Image credit: Generated with Gemini