NTT launches ¥70B+ IOWN AI Fund with SK Group, Sony, Fujitsu, and MUFG
NTT has assembled a ¥70 billion-plus fund with SK Group, Chunghwa Telecom, Sony, Fujitsu, and MUFG to back startups in North America, Asia, and Europe building on IOWN — its all-photonic network that eliminates photon-to-electrical conversion to cut data center power consumption. The bet is structural: as AI workloads push electricity demand sharply higher, a cross-Pacific consortium is funding the photonics path rather than waiting for incremental chip efficiency to close the gap.
Source: digitimes.com ↗
Why this matters
- → AI power demand forces shift to photonic networks over incremental chip gains
- → ¥70B+ consortium signals structural bet on optical infrastructure as competitive necessity
Photonics vs. efficiency race