After more than two and a half years of coordinated work between management and international investors, the European Commission has approved one of the most significant public funding measures for Italian deep tech: €211 million allocated to 2D Photonics SpA Group for the development of an advanced graphene-based pilot line to be built in Bergamo, Italy.

The result is the outcome of close collaboration between the company and a group of leading investors – including CDP Venture Capital SGR, Join Capital GmbH, NATO Innovation Fund, Sony Innovation Fund, Bosch Ventures, Frontier IP Group plc and Indaco Venture Partners – which have supported the company’s growth up to this strategic milestone.

The funding will support the construction of an industrial pilot line dedicated to graphene photonics, with the goal of rapidly bringing to market technologies developed by its subsidiary CamGraPhIC Srl. The facility represents a crucial step: transforming years of advanced research into concrete manufacturing capabilities.

According to the company, the technology developed does not merely improve silicon photonics, but aims to replace it as the standard for optical communications in high-performance systems. At the core of the innovation is a graphene-based Optical I/O architecture that promises:

• ultra-high and fully scalable bandwidth density;
• extremely low latency;
• ultra-high-speed transmission;
• drastically lower energy consumption.

A combination that directly addresses the needs of the most advanced artificial intelligence infrastructures, where data transfer has become the primary bottleneck.

Energy efficiency: a key factor for AI as well

The most relevant aspect, the company emphasizes, is energy consumption: graphene technology makes it possible to move large volumes of data using significantly less power than current solutions.

This is a crucial factor not only for data centers and high-performance computing, but also for sectors such as electric mobility, where the energy efficiency of increasingly complex onboard digital systems is set to become a competitive advantage.

With this investment, 2D Photonics positions itself among a small number of global players working to redefine the architecture of optical communications for the AI era. After 2.5 years of teamwork between the company and its investors, the move to the industrial phase marks a change in scale: from technological promise to real-world deployment, with Italy at the center of a strategic value chain for the future of computing and digital infrastructure.

Innovative technologies for the production and recycling of electric and hybrid vehicles will be presented at E-Tech Europe, taking place 7–9 October 2026 at BolognaFiere, as part of Urban Tech 2026 – The Urban Technology Show, the new event dedicated to e-mobility, traffic, commuting, security, telecommunications & data, and environment.

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