Available worldwide via Amazon (Kindle Edition)
US: $5.99
Other regions: Local Amazon pricing
Available here:
https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0GMXLX56T
Smart Photonics is turning Europe’s photonics ambitions into industrial reality. As production shifts from lab to factory, a deeper question emerges: can Europe finally retain control over critical chip manufacturing — or will scale once again determine who holds power?
As artificial intelligence systems scale to unprecedented levels, the real bottleneck is no longer computing power but data movement. Silicon photonics promises faster, cooler communication between chips—yet the industry still faces a critical challenge: manufacturing optical hardware reliably at massive scale.
In Eindhoven, construction has begun on a pioneering facility for photonic chip manufacturing. Designed to bridge the gap between laboratory research and industrial production, the pilot line aims to accelerate Europe’s semiconductor ambitions and unlock a new generation of faster, energy-efficient computing powered by light.
AI chips are hitting physical limits, forcing the semiconductor industry to rethink how processors are built. As architectures shift from single chips to stacked “silicon skyscrapers” advanced packaging is emerging as the next critical frontier in the race for AI computing power.
As AI shifts power from software to hardware, Europe confronts a deeper vulnerability: dependence on foreign compute infrastructure. Initiatives like PIXSpain aim to rebuild strategic autonomy at the physical layer — where chips, energy and photonics increasingly determine economic and geopolitical power.
A senior European photonics leader leaves a flagship public institute for Huawei’s research center in London — a move that illuminates far more than a personal career shift. It reveals the growing struggle over who will control the physical infrastructure of AI, telecom networks and the digital economy.
For years, photonics has been presented as a technology of the future — elegant, powerful and perpetually just over the horizon. It appears in research agendas and innovation strategies alongside quantum computing and other long-term breakthroughs. As a result, it is still widely perceived as experimental rather than structural.
The Age of Light is not a scientific treatise, nor does it seek to replace or rival ongoing research. It is a reflective work that moves alongside science — drawing on physics, computer science, philosophy and systems thinking to explore how intelligence is changing in form and meaning.
Quantum computing is often presented as a race between exotic physics concepts and dazzling promises of exponential speed-ups. In practice, however, the decisive question is far more down to earth: which technologies can actually be engineered, manufactured and maintained at scale?
In global discussions about semiconductors, the focus tends to drift toward factories, supply chains and geopolitical leverage. Attention goes to where chips are manufactured, who controls production capacity and how nations secure access to critical technologies. Yet these debates often overlook a more fundamental question: where do future chip technologies actually originate?
