A Chinese venture capital firm, CAS Star, founded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is benefiting from the AI boom due to its early investments in photonics. This technology, utilizing light for computing, is seen as the next frontier beyond current data center limitations.

As artificial intelligence strains the physical limits of existing data centres, scientists and investors are turning to the ultimate speed limit of the universe for the next computing frontier: light. For Mi Lei, founder of CAS Star, a venture capital firm born out of the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the sudden global fascination with photonics is less a surprise than a delayed validation. It is a thesis he has spent more than a decade trying to support with funding. “New...