Olix/Notes.md

# Olix (Olix Computing Ltd) — Research Notes

*Compiled 2026-08-10*

## Company overview

- London chip startup, founded March 2024 by James Dacombe (b. 2000, Harrogate; second-time founder — also founded CoMind, non-invasive brain-monitoring neurotech).
- Building rack-scale **AI inference** systems, designed end to end: chips, lasers, and the network connecting them.
- Two contrarian bets:
  1. **No HBM** — on-chip SRAM instead (closer in spirit to Groq/Cerebras).
  2. **No copper interconnect** — a novel photonic interconnect links the chips.
- Also skips advanced packaging (no CoWoS-style interposers) — deliberately avoids the parts of the supply chain with multi-year queues.
- First chip: **DX-1** (X-1 platform) — a *decode accelerator* for the output-generation stage of LLM inference. Claim: >10,000 tokens/sec/user on ~100B-parameter models, better throughput/watt than general-purpose GPUs. Each chip in the platform is specialized for one stage of the inference pipeline.
- First customer access targeted **H2 2027** (pre-silicon as of Aug 2026).

## Funding

| Round | Date | Amount | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series A | Feb 2026 | $220M | ~$1B |
| Series B | Aug 2026 | $312M | $3.3B |

- Series B is the largest chip funding round in European history (~$530M total raised).
- Backers: Arm, Hudson River Trading, Fundomo, Reed Hastings (Netflix co-founder), UK government's Sovereign AI venture fund.
- Key people: Prof. Nick McKeown (Stanford, ex-Intel SVP) joined the board; Matt Briers (ex-Wise CFO) is CFO.

## Patents

No company-published list exists. Google Patents (applicant = "Olix Computing") shows **two published applications**, both PCT/GB filings, same inventor, same priority date — filed ~5 months after founding:

| Publication | Title | Priority | Filed | Published | Inventor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WO2026033226A1 | Method and system for optical computing | 2024-08-08 | 2025-08-08 | 2026-02-12 | Dawid Borycki |
| WO2026033227A1 | Method and system for optical computing | 2024-08-08 | 2025-08-08 | 2026-02-12 | Dawid Borycki |

- WO2026033226A1 = PCT/GB2025/051752. Classifications: G02F1/21, G02F1/225, G02F1/212 (Mach-Zehnder-type interference optics), G02B6/28 (optical coupling/bus waveguides).
- Substance (226): an optical data combiner using **frequency-swept coherent light** — light split into two paths, each phase-modulated by an input data stream, one path delayed, then recombined; the interference pattern encodes the combination and can implement logic gates and arithmetic (add/subtract/multiply/divide). Notably this is genuine *optical computing*, not just interconnect.
- Both have GB counterparts; legal status pending.
- **Caveat:** applications publish 18 months after filing, so anything filed after ~Feb 2025 is still invisible. Re-check Google Patents for "olix computing" every few months.
- Local copies: `WO2026033226A1.pdf` / `WO2026033227A1.pdf` (full text incl. description + claims, rendered from Google Patents pages; the `.html` files are the originals). Official WO pamphlet PDFs were not yet available on Google Patents / WIPO as of this date.

## Comparison vs Lightmatter

| | Olix | Lightmatter |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2024, London | 2017, MIT spinout (Boston) |
| Valuation | $3.3B (Aug 2026) | $4.4B (Series D, Oct 2024) |
| Total raised | ~$530M | ~$850M |
| Stage | Pre-silicon; customers H2 2027 | Passage interconnect (32–64 Tbps CPO) shipping 2026; Synopsys/Cadence integrations; in Nvidia NVLink Fusion ecosystem |
| Model | Vertically integrated inference systems — competes with Nvidia | Sells photonic interconnect into the GPU ecosystem — partners with Nvidia |
| Photonics role | Interconnect fabric (compute is electronic/SRAM) | Interconnect (pivoted away from photonic compute / Envise) |

Similar valuation league, very different risk: Lightmatter is ~FEED-complete with vendors signed; Olix is a well-funded conceptual design package. Market prices them similarly because Olix's addressable prize (whole systems) is larger.

## Why they moved so fast

1. **Narrow problem** — decode-only accelerator, not a general GPU; small design space per chip.
2. **Design choices dodge slow supply chains** — no HBM, no advanced packaging; novelty concentrated in the interconnect, individual dies comparatively conventional.
3. **Capital + talent compress schedules** — $530M in 18 months, veteran hires, second-time founder; peak inference demand + UK sovereign-AI push meant money arrived fast.
4. **Calibration** — the fastest-moving thing is capital formation; performance figures are projections, no shipped silicon. Cf. Graphcore at the same stage.

## Sources

- https://olix.com/news/company-raises-series-b
- https://www.thestack.technology/olix-fund-raise-british-ai-chips/
- https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/chip-startup-olix-raises-312m-at-33bn-valuation-backed-by-uk-govt-sovereign-ai-venture-fund/
- https://rcrtech.com/semiconductor-news/olix-nvidia-by-ditching-hbm-and-copper/
- https://techfundingnews.com/olix-220m-unicorn-photonic-ai-chips-inference/
- https://businesscloud.co.uk/news/james-dacombe-profile-meet-the-uks-25-year-old-unicorn-boss/
- https://thenextweb.com/news/olix-312m-series-b-3-3bn-uk-optical-ai-chip-nvidia-rival
- https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2026033226A1/en
- https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2026033227A1/en
- https://lightmatter.co/press-release/lightmatter-raises-400m-series-d-quadruples-valuation-to-4-4b-as-photonics-leader-for-next-gen-ai-data-centers/