Neurophos Funding, Investors & Competitors

Neurophos has raised $126M across 4 funding rounds, most recently a $110M Series A in January 2026.

Last Neurophos funding round

$110M

Series A · Jan 2026

Cumulative funding Neurophos raised

$126M

across 4 funding rounds

Key investors in Neurophos

  • Gaingels
  • Mana Ventures
  • Trajectory Ventures
  • Gates Frontier Fund
  • Alumni Ventures
  • M12
  • DNX Ventures
  • Space Capital

Neurophos Overview

About Neurophos

Neurophos harnesses metamaterials research to deliver computational power mimicking human brain efficiency to AI systems. The chips enable analog processing for energy-efficient AI inference. Founded in 2015 and Rochester, New York-headquartered, Neurophos collaborates with DARPA on photonic computing projects.


Founded

2020

HQ

United StatesAustin, TX

Status

Privately held

Customer focus

B2B

Revenue model

Product sales

Neurophos Funding History

Neurophos has raised a total of $126M across 4 funding rounds.

Neurophos' first fundraising round was a $7M seed round in October 2023. The most recent completed round was a $110M Series A in January 2026.

Neurophos funding rounds

Neurophos funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedDeal Summary
Jan 2026Series AGates Frontier Fund (lead); Wonderstone Ventures; Space Capital; DNX Ventures; Alumni Ventures; Trajectory Ventures; Silicon Catalyst Ventures; M12; Tectonic Ventures; Gaingels; Mana Ventures; Carbon Direct Capital$110MNeurophos, an Austin, Texas-based startup, develops photonic AI chip technology using metamaterial optical modulators to enable energy-efficient, high-performance AI inference in data centers. The company raised an oversubscribed $110 million Series A round on January 22, 2026, led by Gates Frontier Fund, with participation from M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund), Carbon Direct Capital, Aramco Ventures, Bosch Ventures, Tectonic Ventures, Space Capital, and others, bringing total funding to $118 million. The investors match the query's list, including Alumni Ventures, DNX Ventures, Gaingels, Mana Ventures, Silicon Catalyst Ventures, Trajectory Ventures, and Wonderstone Ventures among the 'others'. Cooley advised Neurophos on the deal. The funding will accelerate delivery of Neurophos’ first integrated photonic compute system, including datacenter-ready optical processing unit (OPU) modules, a full software stack, and early-access developer hardware. Neurophos claims its metasurface-based chips are 10,000 times smaller than traditional optical transistors, enabling thousands of units per chip for massive optical parallelism. Performance claims include 56 GHz operation, 235 Peta Operations per Second (POPS), and 675 watts consumption, outperforming Nvidia’s B200 GPU (9 POPS at 1,000 watts). The company has signed multiple unnamed customers, with interest from Microsoft, and plans initial evaluation hardware in 2026, commercial systems in 2028. Neurophos is expanding its Austin headquarters and opening a San Francisco engineering site to meet early customer demand. The technology targets AI inference workloads amid rising energy costs and compute scaling challenges, positioning against Nvidia-dominated silicon GPUs and photonic competitors like Lightmatter. Prior to this round, Neurophos raised $7.2 million in a seed round in December 2023 to develop metamaterial-based optical AI chips.
Dec 2025Undisclosed stageGaingels$2MNeurophos develops photonic AI chip technology, focusing on optical processing units (OPUs) for exaflop-scale AI compute that outperforms Nvidia GPUs in performance per watt. The company raised $110 million in an oversubscribed Series A round on January 22, 2026, led by Gates Frontier with participation from M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund), Carbon Direct Capital, Aramco Ventures, Bosch Ventures, Tectonic Ventures, Space Capital, Gaingels, and others, bringing total funding to $118 million. Gaingels participated as one of multiple additional investors. The funding accelerates delivery of Neurophos’ first integrated photonic compute system, including datacenter-ready OPU modules, a full software stack, and early-access developer hardware. Neurophos is expanding its Austin headquarters and opening a San Francisco engineering site to meet customer demand. The company claims its OPU chip runs at 56 GHz, delivering 235 Peta Operations per Second (POPS) at 675 watts, compared to Nvidia’s B200 at 9 POPS and 1,000 watts. Neurophos has signed multiple customers and anticipates first chips by mid-2028 in a market dominated by Nvidia with competitors like Lightmatter.
Dec 2023SeedGates Frontier Fund (lead); MetaVC Partners; AdAstral Funds; Mana Ventures$7M-
Oct 2023SeedTrajectory Ventures; Gaingels$7MNeurophos, a Duke University spinout developing metamaterial-based optical AI inference chips for data centers, raised a $7.2 million seed round on December 14, 2023. The funding, led by Gates Frontier and supported by MetaVC Partners, Mana Ventures, and others, enables production of a proprietary metasurface tensor core processor and hiring engineers in Austin, Texas. The company joined Silicon Catalyst incubator to accelerate from prototype to volume production. Neurophos leverages metamaterials IP from MetaVC and research by Duke's Professor David R. Smith for energy-efficient, super-fast photonic AI chips addressing silicon limitations in AI compute. CTO Tom Driscoll previously founded Echodyne, a metamaterials-based radar company. In January 2026, Neurophos raised an oversubscribed $110 million Series A led by Gates Frontier with participation from M12 (Microsoft), Aramco Ventures, Bosch Ventures, and others including Gaingels, bringing total funding to $118 million. The Series A funds delivery of datacenter-ready OPU modules, software stack, and developer hardware, with expansion to San Francisco.

Who has invested in Neurophos?

14 investors have backed Neurophos across its funding rounds, including Gaingels, Mana Ventures, Trajectory Ventures, Gates Frontier Fund, Alumni Ventures and M12.

Lead investors include Gates Frontier Fund.


Neurophos Investors

Investors in Neurophos by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
GaingelsUnited StatesNew York City, NY3ParticipantOct 2023
Trajectory VenturesUnited StatesNew York City, NY2ParticipantOct 2023
Gates Frontier FundUnited StatesDenver, CO2LeadDec 2023
Mana VenturesUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA2ParticipantDec 2023
MetaVC PartnersUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantDec 2023
Wonderstone VenturesUnited StatesUnited States1ParticipantJan 2026
Space CapitalUnited StatesNew York City, NY1ParticipantJan 2026
DNX VenturesUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJan 2026
Alumni VenturesUnited StatesUnited States1ParticipantJan 2026
Silicon Catalyst VenturesUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJan 2026
M12United StatesUnited States1ParticipantJan 2026
AdAstral FundsUnited StatesLos Angeles, CA1ParticipantDec 2023

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Neurophos Competitors

Neurophos competitors include listed companies like UBtech Robotics, NVIDIA, Micron and SK Hynix, and private ones like Neuralink and Figure.

Public and private companies comparable to Neurophos
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
NeuralinkUnited StatesUnited StatesPrivate--$9B-
UBtech RoboticsChinaChinaPublicly listed$298M($108M)$5.1B9.5x
NVIDIAUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$216B$142B$5.3T15.6x
MicronUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$37B$18B$1.1T8.0x
SK HynixSouth KoreaSouth KoreaPublicly listed$71B$47B$902B4.3x
FigureUnited StatesSan Jose, CAPrivate--$39B-

Neurophos Public Comps

Neurophos is still privately-owned, but its public comps include NVIDIA, TSMC, Broadcom, Tesla, Micron, SK Hynix, AMD, ASML, CXMT and Dell.

Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
NVIDIA$216B$142B24.4x15.6x37.1x23.8x
TSMC$120B$83B15.9x12.1x22.9x16.6x
Broadcom$64B$34B26.5x16.8x49.3x24.7x
Tesla$95B$10B15.0x13.8x140.8x97.4x
Micron$37B$18B29.0x8.0x60.3x9.6x
SK Hynix$71B$47B12.1x4.3x18.1x5.3x
AMD$35B$7.1B25.4x19.0x124.8x75.6x
ASML$38B$14B16.5x13.3x43.7x31.7x

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Common questions about Neurophos

When was Neurophos founded?Neurophos was founded in 2020.
Where is Neurophos headquartered?Neurophos is headquartered in Austin, TX, United States.
Is Neurophos publicly listed?No, Neurophos is a private, VC-backed company.
How much funding has Neurophos raised?Neurophos has raised $126M across 4 funding rounds.
What was Neurophos' last funding round?Neurophos' last funding round was a $110M Series A in January 2026, led by Gates Frontier Fund.
Who are Neurophos' investors?Neurophos' investors include Gaingels, Trajectory Ventures, Gates Frontier Fund, Mana Ventures, MetaVC Partners, Wonderstone Ventures, Space Capital, DNX Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Silicon Catalyst Ventures and 4 others.
Which companies are comparable to Neurophos?Companies comparable to Neurophos include Neuralink, UBtech Robotics, NVIDIA, Micron, SK Hynix and Figure.

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