CamGraPhIC, a subsidiary of Milan-based 2D Photonics, has received European Commission approval for €211M in Italian state funding to industrialise its graphene photonic interconnect technology and build a pilot manufacturing line near Milan.
CamGraPhIC, the graphene photonics subsidiary of 2D Photonics, has received European Commission approval for €211 million in Italian state aid funding under the EU’s State Aid Framework for research, development, and innovation.
The funding, described as one of the largest single public investments ever made in an Italian deep-tech startup, will be used to industrialise the company’s graphene-based optical interconnect platform and build a pilot manufacturing facility near Milan, which is scheduled to become operational in 2028.
CamGraPhIC’s technology addresses a problem that has become increasingly acute as AI systems scale: compute power is no longer the primary bottleneck. Instead, performance is being constrained by the speed and efficiency with which data moves between chips, accelerators, and memory.
Existing electrical interconnects and conventional silicon photonic links struggle to keep pace with the bandwidth demands of large AI models, consuming disproportionate power and generating heat.
CamGraPhIC’s approach replaces these links with graphene-based optical input/output technology, which the company says delivers substantially higher bandwidth density, lower latency, and significantly lower energy consumption than the best available silicon photonics.
Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon with exceptional electrical and optical properties, has been a subject of scientific interest for two decades but has been difficult to manufacture at commercial scale.
CamGraPhIC was founded by Marco Romagnoli and Professor Andrea Ferrari, with the pilot line near Milan designed to take the technology from advanced research to real-world production, with a pathway to high-volume foundry processes.
The project is expected to create more than 150 skilled jobs in photonics engineering, materials science, and semiconductor manufacturing.
2D Photonics raised a €25 million Series A in February 2025 from CDP Venture Capital, the NATO Innovation Fund, Join Capital, Sony Innovation Fund, Bosch Ventures, Indaco Ventures, and Frontier IP Group.
The €211 million state aid measure is substantially larger, a reflection of both the capital intensity of semiconductor manufacturing and the EU’s strategic interest in building a European photonics supply chain for AI infrastructure.
