Olix Computing just raised $312 million in its latest funding round, skyrocketing its valuation to $3.3 billion. This makes it the largest chip startup fundraiser in Europe and positions the UK-based firm as a major player in the semiconductor space.
The company, founded in 2024 and recently rebranded from Flux Computing, develops optical AI chips that use photonics instead of traditional electronic circuits. Their flagship product, the DX-1 chip, targets AI inference acceleration, boasting throughput of over 10,000 tokens per second per user. This innovation bypasses the High Bandwidth Memory bottleneck that has plagued many chip manufacturers, including giants like SK Hynix and Nvidia.
Backing from Industry Heavyweights
The funding round attracted heavyweight investors such as Arm, the dominant chip architecture company behind most smartphones, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and quantitative trading firm Hudson River Trading. HRT’s presence is notable given their active involvement in digital asset markets, indicating growing interest in AI hardware from unexpected corners.
Existing investors like Plural, Vertex Ventures, and LocalGlobe also participated, bringing Olix’s total funding past $530 million. The valuation leap from the $1 billion mark achieved in February 2026 to $3.3 billion now reflects a rapid 3.3-fold increase in just months.
What This Means for AI and Crypto
Olix's OTPU technology could reshape AI acceleration by enabling faster, more efficient inference without the memory constraints typical for GPUs. This kind of specialized hardware is key as AI models grow larger and more complex. The company's success highlights how photonic computing is moving from theory toward commercial viability.
Hudson River Trading’s involvement suggests that AI hardware innovation is also catching the eye of firms deeply embedded in crypto and digital asset markets, potentially influencing future infrastructure for AI-driven trading and blockchain analysis.
This is informational content, not financial advice.