The biggest bets on photonic chips right now and what they mean for your career

Photonic chips are having a moment. Not in the hype-cycle sense, but in the more serious, harder-to-ignore sense: governments, research institutions, and companies are making major investments to build the infrastructure needed to manufacture them at scale. Here is what is happening, why it matters, and what it means for people who want to work in this industry.

A new Photonic Chip Pilot Line

In March 2026, TNO and High Tech Campus Eindhoven broke ground on a new pilot line for indium phosphide photonic chips. Built at 6-inch wafer scale, a significant step up from the current 3 to 4 inch standard, the facility is designed to make industrial-scale production of advanced photonic chips viable for the first time. The total investment is 150 million euros over five years, co-funded by the EU Chips Act, PhotonDelta, TNO, and the Dutch ministries of Economic Affairs and Defence.

Ton van Mol, Managing Director at TNO, called it a game-changer for Dutch companies and for the future earning power and prosperity of the Netherlands. The facility is part of PIXEurope, a pan-European programme building the world’s first fully integrated, open-access pilot line for photonic chips, bringing together research organisations and industrial partners to tackle challenges across the entire supply chain.

New Origin: scaling photonic chips for high-performance computing and AI

The pilot line is not the only significant bet being placed. New Origin, based in Enschede, is building a pure-play foundry for silicon nitride photonic chips, drawing on more than three decades of expertise developed in collaboration with the University of Twente and MESA+ Nanolab. Silicon nitride’s low signal loss and broad wavelength range make it ideal for optical communication, AI infrastructure, LiDAR, biosensing, and quantum technology. A recent collaboration with imec marks a significant step toward large-scale industrial production.

What it means for your career

With this new manufacturing infrastructure, the technology is taking a major step towards industrialisation. That means more chips, leading to more applications, more companies, and more jobs. For those who have spent years in research, it means seeing their work translated into tangible products. Business, operations and project management roles are growing alongside technical ones.

Integrated Photonics is not a niche, but a foundational technology underpinning AI infrastructure, 6G networks, quantum computing, medical diagnostics, and defence systems, with serious public and private investment behind it and a growing talent demand at every level. Want to be the first to know about new opportunities in the photonic chip industry? Leave your details to get the latest jobs, news, and events delivered straight to your inbox.