Lumai secures more than €9.2 million to slash AI processing costs and boost performance

Oxford-based Lumai, an AI accelerator startup using optics to address global computational challenges, today announced that it has secured more than €9.2 million to help AI data centres reduce costs and boost performance – while minimising energy consumption. The round was led by VC investor Constructor Capital, with participation from existing investor IP Group, alongside […] The post Lumai secures more than €9.2 million to slash AI processing costs and boost performance appeared first on EU-Startups.

Apr 2, 2025 - 18:39

Lumai secures more than €9.2 million to slash AI processing costs and boost performance

Oxford-based Lumai, an AI accelerator startup using optics to address global computational challenges, today announced that it has secured more than €9.2 million to help AI data centres reduce costs and boost performance – while minimising energy consumption.

The round was led by VC investor Constructor Capital, with participation from existing investor IP Group, alongside new investors PhotonVentures, Journey Ventures, LIFTT, Qubits Ventures, State Farm Ventures, and TIS Inc.

Lumai will use this investment to support its next stage of growth – advancing product development, doubling its headcount, and expanding its U.S. presence.

Tim Weil, CEO and Co-founder at Lumai, commented, “The future of AI demands radical breakthroughs in computing. The cost of current LLMs is unsustainable, and next-generation AI won’t happen without a major shift. Lumai’s innovative optical computing design overcomes the scalability challenges that have held others back and dramatically reduces power consumption, which will drive down the cost of AI.”

Founded in 2022, Lumai’s AI technology was spun out of optics research at the University of Oxford. Lumai was founded to develop a scalable compute solution to meet the growing demand for AI performance while minimising energy consumption.

Its optical technology aims to overcome the scalability challenges of optical computing, reportedly surpassing the limitations of both silicon-based GPUs and other photonic solutions. With its power efficiency, Lumai reduces the operating costs of running AI processors.

This comes at a pivotal time for the industry as “power-hungry” AI models and the drive to artificial general intelligence are pushing silicon-based computing to its limits.

“Life and intelligence are a large carbon-based and electron-based neural model trained over 2 billion years,” noted Dr Serg Bell, Founder and Chairman of Constructor Capital. “Fossil fuels are a byproduct of this evolution, and they may not generate enough energy to create a better model if we continue using electron-based computation. We need more efficient, faster energy sources for the next generation of humanity’s neocortex: Artificial General Intelligence. Photons are the only known choice. Lumai’s technology is a significant step forward in improving matrix multiplication, similar to the advancements quantum computers offer for other computational scenarios.”

With data centre power use in the U.S. expected to triple by 2028, consuming up to 12% of the country’s power, there is a pressing need to address the performance and sustainability challenges plaguing the industry.

Lumai’s technology processes AI’s core arithmetic operations within optical beams traveling through 3D space, reportedly bypassing the limits of silicon GPUs and integrated photonics. By utilising low-cost optical components, the PCIe form factor enables cost-effective, high-performance AI inference.

According to data provided by Lumai, the company’s accelerator will cut AI inference costs to “one-tenth of today’s top solutions“. Lumai’s design will deliver 50 times the performance of silicon-only accelerators while using just 10% of the power required for AI in data centres, lowering both capital costs and total cost of ownership.

Dr Lee Thornton, partner – DeepTech at IP Group, added, “Having solved the challenges of optical compute to provide a low-cost, scalable solution, Lumai’s technology has the potential to transform the future of AI. We are proud to continue supporting Lumai as it embarks on the next phase of its journey.”

“Lumai isn’t just innovating — it is fundamentally reshaping the future of AI compute,” noted Ewit Roos, General Partner, PhotonVentures. “Lumai presents one of the most compelling opportunities in next-generation data centre technology, positioning it at the forefront of the AI revolution. ”

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