PicoJool develops optical interconnect technology based on Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers, or VCSELs, which transmit data via light through optical cables rather than traditional copper wire. The company offers 100G and 200G VCSEL products as well as low-power MicroVCSEL configurations, with its platform capable of delivering up to 3.2 terabits per second of bandwidth for large AI chip clusters.
Led by Socratic Partners, with participation from Hudson River Trading; prior seed round led by Playground Global, the venture firm of former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger
The round brings PicoJool's total funding to $39.5 million and positions it to move its 200G VCSEL into mass production with foundry partner WIN Semiconductors, targeting a connectivity bottleneck that constrains the largest AI clusters. As AI training clusters scale into the hundreds or thousands of accelerators, the energy cost and bandwidth ceiling of copper interconnects have become concrete engineering limits, making optical alternatives a direct enabler of further AI infrastructure expansion.