The Global Unicorn Summit takes place in Hong Kong on August 24–25, 2026, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Hall 3G). With the theme "Born to Lead, Built to Create," the event aims to connect companies with capital, technology, talent, policy, and professional services—positioning Hong Kong as an international platform to attract unicorns, support listings in the city, and help innovative firms expand globally.
As AI applications accelerate and demand for large models and computing power continues to rise, industry leaders are increasingly warning that conventional electronic computing architectures are approaching performance and efficiency bottlenecks. In an interview, Xiong Yinjiang, founder and chairman of LightStandard, a company focused on photonic (light-based) computing chips, said photonic computing is emerging as a major new track—but emphasized that frontier "hard-tech" development cannot be judged by short-term revenue alone.
Xiong noted that as electronic chip processes become ever more advanced, they face physical constraints including quantum tunneling, which makes further iteration on traditional architectures increasingly difficult. "By switching the chip's underlying medium from electricity to light," he said, "key architectural problems can be addressed."
According to Xiong, the rise of AI has expanded photonic computing's potential use cases. He pointed to fast, efficient AI inference—including large-model question answering with lower energy consumption and cost—as well as high-speed inference needs in autonomous driving. He also highlighted potential roles in improving connectivity efficiency between space satellites.
When asked where the industry's next breakthrough may come from, Xiong argued that a top priority is strengthening the broader supply chain—from fabrication (FAB) to packaging and testing (OSAT). Because photonic computing is a comparatively new field, it lacks the decades of accumulated know-how found in electronic computing, making coordinated ecosystem development critical.
Xiong said China has notable advantages in photonic chip development, citing a more concentrated supply chain and the view that domestic and overseas players are largely starting from a similar baseline in photonic-chip processes. With higher manufacturing efficiency, lower costs and shorter development cycles, he described the current moment as a global "sprint phase" for photonic chips.
Founded in 2022, LightStandard has moved quickly toward commercialization in just four years. Xiong disclosed that the company has already secured commercial orders from major clients and claimed that its single-chip compute precision and energy efficiency are reaching globally leading levels. However, he stressed that the greatest challenge in scaling from laboratory prototypes to mass industrial deployment remains supply-chain control, which becomes far more demanding once a company shifts from experimental setups to building products under stricter manufacturing requirements.
Comment