Huawei Takes Stake in InP Optical Chip Firm Milphoton Semiconductor
What's the deal? HuaweiDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s investment arm Hubble has taken a stake in Milphoton Semiconductor, a Beijing-based startup that designs indium phosphide (InP) optical chips. The angel round, which also included Xinke CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (affiliated with China Information and Communication Technologies Group), Oriza HoldingsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and others, pushed Milphoton's registered capital from roughly CNY 5.155M to CNY 5.514M.
Founded in May 2021, Milphoton makes uni-travelling-carrier photodetectors used in 800G and 1.6T high-speed optical modules, 6G wireless base stations, and LiDAR systems. The chips also target high-speed interconnects inside AI data centres.
Proceeds will fund next-generation chip R&D, team expansion, and a pilot production line to accelerate commercialisation of 6G and high-speed optical interconnect products.
Why now? Global deployment of AI computing clusters is driving surging demand for 800G and 1.6T optical modules — the very components that rely on InP chips. High-speed InP optical chips have long been dominated by overseas suppliers, making domestic alternatives a strategic priority for China.
Indium phosphide, a III-V compound semiconductor, offers performance advantages in high-frequency and optoelectronic applications that other materials cannot match. It is considered a critical substrate technology for both 6G communications and next-generation optical modules.
What could go wrong? Milphoton is still at the angel stage, meaning it has a long road from pilot line to volume production. Competing with entrenched overseas InP chip suppliers on yield, reliability, and cost will be difficult. Tightening US-led export controls on advanced semiconductor equipment could also complicate the company's manufacturing ambitions.
The signal: Huawei's Hubble fund continues to seed Chinese startups working on components where foreign dependence poses supply-chain risk. The investment fits a broader pattern: strategic capital flowing into deep-tech firms that can localise critical parts of the AI and telecom hardware stack. As data centre bandwidth requirements balloon and 6G R&D accelerates, InP optical chips sit at an important intersection of two massive upgrade cycles — and China wants homegrown suppliers ready when demand peaks.
Read more: trendforce.com
