A startup developing optical connectivity solutions targeting AI infrastructure with backing from former Intel and VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger has raised $27.5 million.

The Series A round for Palo Alto-based PicoJool was led by Socratic Partners, the venture capital firm led by former NXP Semiconductor CEO Rick Clemmer. Hudson River Trading also backed the startup.

PicoJool is developing optical chips and modules for high-bandwidth for use in AI data centers. It’s specifically developing high-speed VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser)-based solutions, with its initial product line targeting scale-up links unveiled in the summer, capable of supporting more than 37 gigahertz of bandwidth. The startup is also working on microVCSEL products, which are smaller and use far less power than their conventional wire-bonded counterparts.

Upon closing Series A, PicoJool plans to use the funds to expand its facilities in both the U.S. and Taiwan to bring its products to market. Efforts to grow its R&D, sales, and marketing team are also planned with a view for its products supporting both hyperscalers and data center operators.

The startup is led by Al Yuen, a serial founder and entrepreneur whose resume includes a stint as general manager of Coherent’s Semiconductor business in the mid-2000s. More recently, he spent more than a decade running R&D development of VCSELs for data centers and AI clusters at Nvidia-backed Lumentum.

“Reaching 200G per lane proved that the performance is there. Our focus now is execution,” CEO Yuen said in a statement. “This funding allows us to expand our teams in the U.S. and Taiwan, qualify products with customers, and move a complete portfolio from chip-level VCSELs and microVCSELs into active optical cable (AOC) and near-packaged optics (NPO) modules. We are building the connectivity platform customers will need for the next decade of AI infrastructure.”

The Series A round follows an earlier seed round that brings the company’s total funding to $39.5 million.

Gelsinger – who was ousted from Intel in late 2024 – said of the startup: “PicoJool brings together breakthrough VCSEL performance, deep systems expertise and a manufacturing base capable of supporting tremendous scale. The team is well positioned to move quickly from an important technical milestone to products that can reshape how AI infrastructure moves data.”

VCSEL arrays are a number of growing light-based technologies looking to help push AI infrastructure performance levels to new heights.

Both Yuen’s former employers, Coherent and Lumentum, are looking at it for AI interconnectivity, while one rival startup based in Scotland is looking at developing PCSELs (photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers), which it argues offer improved beam quality, and therefore a means to support higher-power outputs compared to VCSELs.

There’s also co-packaged optics and NPO, but PicoJool is throwing its weight behind gallium arsenide (GaAs) VCSELs, which, unlike the former, is far from supply chain constrained. As a result, the startup is already working with GaAs foundries like WIN Semiconductor to ready its hardware for production.