Bill Gates leads $110M Series A for Neurophos optical AI chip to challenge Nvidia

Bill Gates is placing a massive bet on the future of AI hardware. As labs struggle with skyrocketing power bills, an Austin-based startup called Neurophos claims it's found the solution—not in better transistors, but in the physics of light.

Neurophos optical AI chip Series A funding and technology

According to TechCrunch, Neurophos has raised $110 million in a Series A round led by Gates Frontier. The investor syndicate includes heavy hitters like Microsoft’s M12, Aramco Ventures, and Bosch Ventures. The capital will fuel the development of their Optical Processing Unit (OPU), which aims to redefine AI inferencing.

At the heart of their innovation is a "metasurface modulator." While optical computing has existed for years, components were often too bulky for mass production. Neurophos claims its metasurface is 10,000 times smaller than traditional optical transistors, allowing them to pack thousands of modulators onto a single chip using standard foundry tools.

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Outperforming the Nvidia Blackwell Architecture

The performance claims are staggering. Neurophos' OPU is designed to run at 56 GHz, delivering a peak of 235 Peta Operations per Second (POPS) while consuming only 675 watts. In contrast, Nvidia’s flagship B200 (Blackwell) provides roughly 9 POPS at 1,000 watts. This represents a massive leap in energy efficiency and raw computational power.

CEO Patrick Bowen emphasizes that they aren't just following TSMC’s node roadmaps, which typically yield 15% efficiency gains every few years. Instead, they are starting with a 50x advantage over current silicon. The company expects its first chips to hit the market by mid-2028.