Multymeter.com-Technology: In late 2025, a team of researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tsinghua University in China published their research in the journal Science on a photonic chip called LightGen. LightGen is claimed to be 100 times more powerful than the Nvidia A100, referring to specific metrics for generative AI tasks, such as image generation, video processing, and visual processing.
In terms of speed, LightGen has a computing speed of up to 35,700 TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second) and energy efficiency of up to 664 TOPS/watt, theoretically far exceeding the energy efficiency of traditional silicon chips that use electrons. Unlike Nvidia’s transistor-based chip, LightGen is an all-optical chip. LightGen uses over 2 million photonic neurons integrated on a single chip. Data processing is performed through light pulses (photons) instead of electrical currents, thus minimizing thermal resistance and increasing data transmission speeds to near the speed of light. One of the main obstacles to previous photonic chips was the need to constantly convert electrical signals into light and vice versa. LightGen claims to be able to process information directly in the optical domain.
The LightGen Unsupervised algorithm uses an unsupervised training method, which allows it to recognize statistical patterns without the need for a large labeled dataset. LightGen is currently in the laboratory prototype stage. Moving it to mass production and commercial data centers faces significant challenges in terms of precision manufacturing and system integration. Overall, this is a major breakthrough for China, moving beyond its reliance on high-end silicon chip technologies (such as EUV), currently restricted by international sanctions, by shifting to photonic architecture.***