Chinese team builds optical chip AI that is 100 times faster than Nvidia’s A100

Chinese team builds optical chip AI that is 100 times faster than Nvidia’s A100

Researchers harnessed the power of light to create a chip that could perform complex generative tasks with vastly improved energy efficiency.

Chinese scientists unveil chip 100 times faster than Nvidia

Chinese scientists have unveiled an optical computing chip that outperformed Nvidia’s leading AI hardware by over a hundredfold in speed and energy efficiency, reports the South China Morning Post. The chip performs particularly well for generative tasks such as video production and image synthesis.  The LightGen chip was developed by a team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and […]

Chinese Researchers Develop Optical AI Chip Outperforming Nvidia A100

SHANGHAI, December 18, 2025 – Scientists from Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have created LightGen, a photonic computing chip that achieves over 100 times greater speed and energy efficiency than Nvidia’s A100 GPU in specific generative AI tasks, according to a study published in Science. The chip packs more than 2 million photonic neurons into a 136.5 mm² die, using laser pulses for data processing to minimize power consu…