Bopu Semiconductor raises several hundred million yuan for AI data-center photonics
What's the deal? Bopu Semiconductor, a Shanghai silicon photonics startup, has raised a Series B of several hundred million yuan, the company said on November 6. Investors include China Vision CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Kailian Capital, Southeast Grid, the Shanghai Science and Technology Venture Capital Group Intellectual Property Fund, and Shunyi Investment.
Who's behind it? The company was founded in Shanghai in 2022 by returnee Dr. Xing Yufei and his team. Xing earned a doctorate in integrated silicon-based optoelectronics at Ghent University in Belgium and later built chips and wafer-level test platforms at Canadian quantum firm Xanadu.
What does it do? Bopu focuses on high-speed optical interconnection and optical switching, offering full-link solutions from chip design to mass production. Its products span high-speed silicon photonic transceivers, IP licensing, wafer-level test equipment, optical circuit switching, and optical engines for AI computing.
What's the endgame? Xing said the new funds will fuel R&D in silicon photonic switching chips and processes, plus next-generation high-speed optical transceiver chips and optical engines for chip-level optical interconnection.
Why now? China's silicon-photonics financing is tracking demand for faster, more power-efficient links inside AI data-center clusters. The Series B follows a similarly sized Series A in October 2025, and the company says it reached large-scale product shipment in 2025.
What could go wrong? Adoption of Bopu's optical-switching products is still being developed. Its significance will hinge on customer uptake and production execution, not the headline amount.
The signal: The round is part of a broader capital push into optical interconnects. Other Chinese startups have drawn sizable backing too, including Guanglian Xinke, which reportedly raised nearly US$206.3M across two 2026 rounds for chip-level optical I/O.
Read more: eu.36kr.com
Image credit: IBM Research
