Optical metamaterials enable compact, energy-efficient chips, transforming AI processing with unprecedented compute density and low power consumption.

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Two startups, Lumotive and Neurophos, are applying optical metamaterial science to practical computing problems. Lumotive has debuted a programmable metasurface microchip using copper structures and liquid crystals that can steer and split light beams with no moving parts, targeting optical circuit switches for data centers at scales up to 10,000×10,000 ports, with launch planned for late 2026. Neurophos is building optical modulators 1/10,000th the size of current designs, fitting a 1,000×1,000 array in a 5×5mm chip, claiming 50× better compute density and energy efficiency versus Nvidia's Blackwell GPU, with proof-of-concept chips being evaluated by hyperscalers this year and production targeted for mid-2028.

Optical Metamaterials Could Boost AI Data Centers