LightSpeed Photonics plans packaging pilot line in India; eyes 50% local production by 2028: CEO Rohin Y

Singapore and Hyderabad-based LightSpeed Photonics plans to establish a photonics-packaging pilot line in India with partners as it aims to shift at least half its production to the country by 2028, according to founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Rohin Y.

“We are developing the pilot line with partners and expect to make an announcement soon. Considerable groundwork is underway, and we have identified the right partners,” Rohin told ET AI during SEMICON India 2026.

Photonics packaging brings together chips and optical components into devices that transmit data using light. LightSpeed develops such connections for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing data centres.


Rohin did not disclose the proposed investment, location or commissioning date. However, he added the company plans to apply for support under the India Semiconductor Mission.

Bringing development closer

The pilot line would initially serve the firm's internal research and development needs, Rohin said. Bringing more of the development process to India could shorten the time to build and test products, he added.

“We currently conduct design, simulation and testing in India, while assembly and fabrication take place in Singapore. Bringing those activities closer together could significantly reduce development time,” he told ET AI.

Eventually, the line could establish a model for other companies to expand into production, although its immediate purpose was internal use.

Rohin sees assembly, advanced packaging and testing as areas where India can build capabilities. The company would continue importing unpackaged chips, lasers and amplifiers, he said, indicating that shifting production would still involve overseas components.

Also read: India ready to become world's preferred destination for semiconductors: PM at Semicon India 2026

“By 2028, we plan to have at least half our production here,” he said.

However, building a wider domestic manufacturing base would require orders from several companies, Rohin said. Contract manufacturers need to keep facilities running close to capacity to make their investments viable.

"It is still a little early for India to develop the required production capacity. To justify the capital investment, there must be established demand beyond our own products," Rohin said.

Also read: India sees $11–12 bn chip investment interest under Semicon 2.0: Ashwini Vaishnaw

He estimates that each megawatt of data centre capacity could require 2,000–5,000 optical transceivers for internal connections, creating a potential market and believes India should aim for local production in the hundreds of thousands or millions of units over five years rather than limit itself to assembling imported kits in small volumes.

Moving data with light

LightSpeed’s manufacturing push is driven by what Rohin sees as the growing challenge of moving data quickly between processors in AI data centres.

Traditional systems carry data as electrical signals over copper tracks before optical transceivers convert it into optical signals. At higher speeds, the signals can weaken, requiring additional chips to restore their quality, thus increasing power consumption.

Co-packaged optics solve that by placing optical components alongside the main chip within the same package. LightSpeed takes a different approach, called near-packaged optics, in which the optical component sits nearby on the circuit board.

Rohin said this allows manufacturers to add optical connections without changing the main chip’s package. Customers must, however, design LightSpeed’s component into their boards rather than simply plug it into an existing slot.

“Our product carries a premium over a pluggable transceiver but is more cost-effective than co-packaged optics. That is the commercial position we are targeting,” he said.

Turning pilots into orders

The Singapore-headquartered company was founded in 2021 by Rohin and Ramana Pamidighantam. In November last year, the company raised $6.5 million in a round led by pi Ventures, taking total funding, including grants, to about $8.5 million.

Rohin said LightSpeed has four customer pilots underway and aims to add at least 12 more by the end of this fiscal year. The pilots involve chipmakers and manufacturers of servers, network cards and switches, mainly in the US.

He declined to name the companies.

Also read: Semicon India 2.0 targets 200 chip design startups, 1 lakh technicians, Ashwini Vaishnaw says

"We are also getting a lot of interest from Southeast Asia. And India will be a good market opportunity for us once we hit the scale because we are looking at this as a mass market consumption," he said.

Its current transceiver transfers data at 400 gigabits per second while consuming less than two watts, Rohin said. Customers have bought evaluation kits and validated its specifications, while integration into their own boards remains underway, he added.

Pilots typically take six to nine months to become larger-volume orders, according to Rohin. Customers also want assurances on manufacturing capacity, prices and long-term support.

The company expects to announce reliability testing results and production readiness at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference in Los Angeles in March 2027, he said. It expects to begin generating revenue by the end of the current fiscal and had initially set a target of $3 million for 2027-28.

However, Rohin said that as its contract manufacturers scale up, LightSpeed could produce 10,000 units a month and reach around $10 million in revenue in 12 to 18 months of launching commercial production.