ctg. morning brief, 5 Nov 2026
On 5 Nov 2026, Eindhoven's Photon Bridge raised €10m, co-led by 360 Capital and the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, with Innovation Industries, Faber and Brabant Development Agency following on. First samples in 2027, volume manufacturing from 2028.
Why it matters: AI clusters are running out of light, not just chips. Photon Bridge combines many low-power lasers instead of one big one, up to 40 mW per wavelength per fibre, and spreads production across more than one indium phosphide foundry. A Dutch bet on the optical layer of AI.
Source: https://telconews.co.uk/story/photon-bridge-raises-10-million-for-ai-laser-scale-up
The EU launched the European Chip Design Platform: €525m in total, €440m in grants from the Commission and member states to help startups take chips to market, plus €85m for the platform itself. Henna Virkkunen opened it on 4 November.
Why it matters: European chip design companies take less than 1% of global revenue in the segment, the Commission's own number. Fabs only pay off if Europeans design what goes in them. Design tools, IP blocks and fab access are the expensive part for small teams. Edition candidate.
Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/eu525-million-investment-set-drive-new-generation-european-chip-design-companies
Furiosa AI closed a $620m Series D at a $2.9bn post-money valuation and will add research and sales hires at its Lisbon European HQ. It expects 20,000 RNGD inference chips in 2026 and more than 40,000 in 2027.
Why it matters: A Korean chip company is choosing Lisbon as its European base, with RNGD servers already at Equinix LS2. Portugal is selling clean power and talent, and it is working.
Source: https://ai.pt/en/news/furiosa-ai-closes-620-million-series-d-and-will-add-lisbon-research-and-ae3081/