Neurophos, an Austin-based startup developing metasurface-based photonic AI chips, announced on September 10, 2026 that it hired four executives, added former Graphcore CEO Nigel Toon to its board, and opened a Silicon Valley office in Sunnyvale. The moves come eight months after a $110 million oversubscribed Series A round backed by M12 (Microsoft's venture fund). The company aims to commercialize a novel optical computing approach that could reduce power and cost bottlenecks in AI clusters. For a financial institution, this signals continued diversification of the AI chip supply chain, but the startup remains pre-revenue and faces well-capitalized competitors like Lightmatter and Ayar Labs.
333 other tracked developments touching the same claims.