HyperLight
Cambridge, Massachusetts photonics company founded in 2018 that makes thin-film lithium niobate photonic integrated circuits for AI data centres and telecom networks. It announced an USD 80 million Series C in June 2026.
Industry: Integrated photonics | Location: Cambridge, United States | Founded: 2018 | Total Funding: USD 117M
About HyperLight
HyperLight Corporation is a photonics company in Cambridge, Massachusetts that designs, manufactures and sells photonic integrated circuits built on thin-film lithium niobate, known as TFLN. Its chips are used in optical networks for AI data centres, telecom and data-centre interconnect, and its website also lists test and measurement, quantum systems and sensing applications. The company offers custom development and multi-project wafer runs alongside its products.
Summit Partners and Pulse 2.0 date the company's founding to 2018, and TechScoop describes it as a spin-out of Harvard research. Mian Zhang is president and chief executive. Harvard's Office of Technology Development says he was a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Marko Lončar, a Harvard professor of electrical engineering whom it describes as a scientific founder. HyperLight launched with seed funding from The Engine and support from Harvard's Physical Sciences and Engineering Accelerator.
The product range on its website covers IMDD transmitter PICs for pluggable transceivers, DPIQ transmitter PICs for data-centre interconnect and long-haul coherent links, and packaged amplitude, phase and IQ modulators. Its TFLN Chiplet Platform supports 200 gigabit per lane operation, with 400 gigabit per lane solutions sampling to customers as of June 2026. Converge Digest reported that the platform was launched in March 2025 and that the company demonstrated a 3.2 terabit per second O-band IMDD link with Ciena and McGill in April 2025.
HyperLight lists UMC as its foundry partner and Wavetek as a strategic partner for high-volume production on 6-inch and 8-inch wafers, and names Jabil among its collaborators. It states that it has held ISO 9001:2015 certification since 25 September 2025 and that its products have worldwide patent protection.
In September 2024 the company announced a USD 37 million Series B led by Summit Partners, with existing investors Xora Innovation and Foothill Ventures taking part. Peter Chung of Summit joined its board. On 18 June 2026 it announced an USD 80 million Series C led by MediaTek, with UMC Capital, Jabil, Foxconn, EDBI, CDIB-TEN Capital and the Qatar Investment Authority also taking part. The company said the money would expand manufacturing capacity and speed customer qualification.
Leadership
- Mian Zhang, Co-founder and CEO
- Marko Lončar, Co-founder and board member; Professor, Harvard
- Mian Zhang, President and Chief Executive Officer
- Peter Chung, Board member; Managing Director and CEO, Summit Partners