Startup in Series B funding to advance semiconductor manufacturing
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xLight, a company building the most powerful lasers, has successfully secured an impressive $40 million in an oversubscribed Series B equity round. The funding further enables xLight to develop the world’s most powerful extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) free-electron lasers (FELs), which will revolutionise cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing and unlock other critical economic and national security applications.
“xLight is on a mission to build a transformational new light source for semiconductor manufacturing that addresses the key challenges facing the industry today — cost, capabilities, and capacity. This round will equip the company with the capital needed to complete detailed design and kickstart construction of our full-scale prototype,” said Nicholas Kelez, CEO and CTO of xLight. “Advanced semiconductor manufacturing is approaching a key inflection point — together with our partners across the National Lab and semiconductor ecosystem, and with the support of our investors, we will commercialise free electron lasers and help reclaim American leadership in semiconductor manufacturing.”
xLight continues to execute against its business goals, as evidenced by its ongoing partnerships with three globally recognised, leading research facilities: the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Science and Education (CLASSE), the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. In the last two years, the company has completed key systems designs, including subsystem prototyping and first articles, and established a working relationship with technical leaders at ASML.
xLight’s work with CLASSE focuses primarily on research and development, with the ultimate goal of commercialising technologies developed by Cornell’s BNL ERL Test Accelerator (CBETA). The joint venture with LANL, funded by New Mexico’s TRGR Technology Readiness Initiative, focuses on applying modern machine learning techniques to enable the automation of a large-scale accelerator. Large-scale accelerators, such as those under cooperative development at LANL, are an integral component of xLight’s technical roadmap. xLight’s collaboration with Fermilab focuses on the development and testing of superconducting radio frequency cavities and cryomodules – two particle accelerator technologies that the lab has mastered over decades.
“xLight represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore American leadership in one of the most critical technologies underpinning the semiconductor manufacturing industry,” said Pat Gelsinger, Executive Chairman of the Board, xLight and General Partner, Playground Global.
“By delivering an energy‑efficient EUV laser with tenfold improvements over existing technologies, xLight has the potential to drive the next era of Moore’s Law — keeping chip scaling alive, accelerating fab productivity, and anchoring this foundational capability in the U.S. supply chain,” said Pat Gelsinger, Executive Chairman of the Board, xLight and General Partner, Playground Global.
“xLight’s breakthrough technology delivers a real edge for next-generation semiconductor manufacturing,” said Peter Barrett, General Partner and co-founder at Playground Global. “With AI driving unprecedented demand for more powerful and complex chips, the industry needs a step change in productivity. By applying proven accelerator physics in a novel way, xLight’s EUV FEL platform has the potential to enable not just more efficient production, but entirely new kinds of devices.”
Image: xLight Leadership Team at the office of venture capital firm Playground Global in Palo Alto, California. From left to right: VP of Accelerator Systems Bruce Dunham, VP for Global Policy and Public Sector Partnerships Ben Purser, VP of Photon Systems Chris Anderson, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer Nicholas Kelez, Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Heidrich, and VP of Engineering and Industrialization Andrew Burrill. Courtesy of xLight — Stephanie Cowan.
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