How a decade-long bet on photonics handed this Chinese venture capital firm an AI windfall

As artificial intelligence strains the physical limits of existing data centres, scientists and investors are turning to the ultimate speed limit of the universe for the next computing frontier: light. For Mi Lei, founder of CAS Star, a venture capital firm born out of the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the sudden global fascination with photonics is less a surprise than a delayed validation. It is a thesis he has spent more than a decade trying to support with funding. “New...