All-Optical General-Purpose Processors

Akhetonics (Germany, €6M seed) is developing the world's first all-optical general-purpose processor. Unlike electronic chips that convert signals to electrons, process them, and convert back, optical processors keep data as photons throughout computation — processing at the speed of light with dramatically lower power consumption.

The potential is transformative for AI inference, signal processing, and telecommunications: photonic processors could be 100x faster and 10x more energy-efficient than electronic equivalents for certain workloads. The technology is particularly relevant for edge computing in defense and telecommunications where latency and power constraints are critical.

Europe has significant strength in photonics research (concentrated in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK), and photonic computing represents a path where European chip innovation could leapfrog rather than chase established semiconductor leaders. The ASML ecosystem in the Netherlands already demonstrates Europe's ability to dominate a critical chip technology niche.