Aramco Ventures joined a USD 110 mn funding round for Austin-based chipmaker Neurophos, co-investing alongside Bill Gates’ Gates Frontier, Microsoft’s M12, Bosch Ventures, Tectonic Ventures, and Space Capital, according to Bloomberg. Neurophos is developing an optical processing unit (OPU) that uses photons (light) rather than electrons to transmit and process data, claiming its technology will be 100x more energy-efficient than current GPUs that dominate the market.

Why it matters: Traditional silicon chips are becoming increasingly difficult to cool and power at scale, as they consume huge amounts of energy. By backing Neurophos, Aramco is moving beyond being a mere consumer of chips to owning the intellectual property of the “post-silicon” era. The move follows Aramco’s CEO Amin Nasser’s recent signal at Davos that Aramco is pivoting toward deep-tech AI to boost its operations and reduce costs.

MEANWHILE- Aramco Ventures is gearing up to attract as many as 100 global AI startups to the Kingdom, CEO Mahdi Aladel told Asharq Business on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background and outside sources.)

Tags: