Business & TrendsSeptember 24, 2026
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Gelsinger Bets on Light, Not Copper
PicoJool raises $27.5M to replace copper interconnects with VCSEL optics for AI clusters.
#VCSEL#AI data centers#funding#optical interconnects#Pat Gelsinger
š„ What happened
PicoJool, a startup backed by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, raised $27.5M in Series A funding led by Socratic Partners and Hudson River Trading. Total funding now sits at $39.5M. The company makes VCSEL optical chips that replace copper interconnects in AI data centers.
š” Why it matters
PicoJool's VCSEL tech pushes up to 3.2 terabits per second per connection while slashing energy costs. Copper wiring simply can't handle the bandwidth demands of today's massive GPU clusters. This is a direct attack on the biggest physical bottleneck in AI scaling.
ā” Our take
Gelsinger nailed it: the network IS the AI. Whoever controls bandwidth controls how fast AI can grow. PicoJool might just be the bottleneck-breaker everyone's been waiting for.
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