Swiss startup bets on photonic chips to cut data centre energy consumption

Amid the AI boom, data centres are consuming alarming amounts of electricity. They’re also responsible for 1% of global energy-related emissions. By 2030, their power demand could increase by 160%. Switzerland-based Lightium aims to provide a solution. The young startup announced today it has raised $7mn in seed funding to both accelerate the performance of data centres and reduce their energy consumption with a next generation of photonic chips. Data centres are essentially large cluster