PhotonDelta sees tipping point approaching: moment for scaling up

After years of building fundamental technology, research networks, and industrial collaboration, the Dutch photonics industry is now approaching a decisive moment, according to PhotonDelta. The pioneering phase is giving way to scaling up. The technology works, the ecosystems are in place, and international interest is growing. The question now is whether Europe — and the Netherlands in particular — will succeed in turning that technological lead into economic value.

That is the central message of PhotonDelta’s 2025 annual report. The analysis by board members Eelko Brinkhoff and Laurens Weers reads as a combination of reflection, warning, and a call to accelerate. “Progress in building a new industry rarely happens in dramatic leaps,” Brinkhoff and Weers write. “More often, it resembles the steady climb of a mountain.”

That metaphor runs like a thread through the report. Integrated photonics — chips that work with light instead of electricity — has been advancing for more than a decade, although for a long time mainly visible to insiders. Only now are the outlines of an industry that could play a key role in AI, data communications, quantum technology, and energy-efficient infrastructure becoming clear.

From research promise to industry

In the report, PhotonDelta refers back to a 2012 roadmap from JePPIX, a European initiative around indium phosphide photonics. At the time, it predicted that a generic foundry model for photonic chips could have the same impact on photonics as semiconductor fabs once had on the chip industry.

What sounded ambitious back then has now, according to PhotonDelta, largely become reality. Design networks exist, foundry capacity is expanding, and an ecosystem has emerged around integrated photonics that includes startups, knowledge institutes, design firms, and manufacturing partners.

The Netherlands is playing a remarkably large role in that ecosystem. By the end of 2025, the Dutch ecosystem counted 33 specialized PIC companies (Photonic Integrated Circuits), representing 780 full-time employees and a combined turnover of €33 million. In addition, the number of patents grew to 345, while a total of €627 million in funding has been deployed since 2016.

That growth is no coincidence, PhotonDelta emphasizes. It is the result of years of public investment, strategic consistency, and collaboration between government, science, and industry. “We stand on the shoulders of those who recognized early on that industrializing integrated photonics would require more than excellent research alone,” Brinkhoff and Weers write.

AI changes everything

According to PhotonDelta, the urgency is now increasing rapidly because of the explosive growth of AI. Data centers and AI infrastructures are running into fundamental limits in terms of energy consumption and data speed. That is precisely where photonics offers an alternative. “The demand for new technological solutions is becoming increasingly clear,” the board writes. “Integrated photonics offers a route toward faster and more energy-efficient data transmission and processing.”

This is also reflected in the markets PhotonDelta is targeting. In the second phase of the Dutch National Growth Fund program, €65 million is being invested directly into applications such as optical transceivers for AI data centers, optical switching, quantum computing, LiDAR, and medical sensors. Data communications and AI, in particular, are seen as major growth engines. International demand is rising rapidly, especially from the United States. Foreign revenue grew by more than 32 percent in 2025 to €14 million.

Europe has the technology, but not yet the market position

Still, the annual report also contains a clear warning. Europe may have strong technological foundations, but other regions are moving faster in market development and industrialization. “The biggest threat is not that we cannot climb the mountain,” Brinkhoff and Weers write, “but that we underestimate how quickly the landscape around us is changing.”

PhotonDelta therefore sees strategic autonomy becoming increasingly important — not only because of economic opportunities, but also because of geopolitical dependencies. The combination of AI, defense applications, digital infrastructure, and European chip sovereignty means photonics is becoming more explicitly part of a broader European industrial policy.

That is also visible in PhotonDelta’s international activities. In 2025, the ecosystem not only organized a sold-out PIC Summit Europe in Eindhoven with more than 700 participants from twenty countries, but also launched the first PIC Summit USA in Silicon Valley. Eindhoven also attracted a growing number of international players. One notable example is Japanese technology company DNP, which opened an R&D center for co-packaged optics at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven.

The next phase: scaling up

While the first years revolved around technology development and ecosystem building, the next phase is all about scale, according to PhotonDelta. Companies must grow, production capacity must increase, and applications must reach large markets. PhotonDelta explicitly positions itself as the orchestrator of the ecosystem. “Our role is to connect the strengths of industry, knowledge institutes, and government,” Brinkhoff and Weers write.

That also includes investing in talent. By 2028, the ecosystem is expected to grow to 1,800 full-time employees. At the same time, specialized personnel remains scarce. In particular, people capable of combining hardware, software, electronics, and photonics are difficult to find.

Yet despite all the challenges, the report is dominated by a sense of momentum. After years of preparation, integrated photonics finally appears to be reaching the point where the technology can translate into a visible economic impact. “The climb continues,” Brinkhoff and Weers conclude. “And the moment to gain ground is now.”