Q.ANT Secures $18 Million in Refinancing for Photonic AI

Q.ANT, a developer of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) photonic processing systems, announced the completion of the second round of its Series A financing, reportedly valued at $18 million. The investment was led by Duquesne Family Office LLC, the investment firm of Stanley F. Druckenmiller. 

The increase brings Q.ANT’s total funding to US$80 M – claimed to be the largest financing round for photonic computing in Europe. The funds will help commercialize its optical processors, drive technology development to improve AI infrastructure, and support expansion into the U.S. market.

Q.ANT has also announced the appointment of Sue Meng, Managing Director at Duquesne Family Office, as an observer to its advisory board.

Photonics processor from Q.ANT

The Duquesne Family Office joins Q.ANT’s existing lead investors: Cherry Ventures, UVC Partners and imec.xpand and other deep tech investors, including L-Bank, Verve Ventures, Grazia Equity, EXF Alpha of Venionaire Capital, LEA Partners, Onsight Ventures, and Trumpf.

Energy challenge

The company’s latest funding statement notes: “This explosive growth comes with a hard limit: energy. As the world’s data centers consume increasing shares of national power grids, efficiency has become the defining constraint on progress.

“Q.ANT addresses this challenge at its foundation. By computing natively with light, its photonic processors deliver the precision and performance AI and HPC demand with only a fraction of the energy required by electronic chips. The result is scalable, sustainable computing for the next generation of data-intensive systems.”
CEO Dr. Michael Förtsch said, “AI is pushing the limits of global resources – energy, hardware, and capital. At Q.ANT, we achieve performance through efficiency, redefining how AI can scale. The Duquesne Family Office shares our conviction that sustainable computing will define the next era of progress.”

The company has brought to market what it calls “the world’s first commercial photonic processor for real-world AI and HPC workloads.” Based on TFLN (thin-film lithium niobate), the Q.ANT Native Processing Server integrates with data centers as a plug-in co-processor.

The statement adds, “Early benchmarks show up to 30x greater energy efficiency, 50x performance gains, and the potential to increase data center capacity by 100x – all without active cooling. Q.ANT achieves 16-bit floating-point accuracy, equivalent to modern digital processors, while retaining the continuous advantages of analog computing.”

Source: optics.org