What Happens When Data Starts Moving at the Speed of Light? I Worked at IBM. I’ve Seen Every Tech Revolution. This One Feels Different.

Rose Odette
Oct 16
3 min read

The next revolution in computing isn’t about faster electricity — it’s about light itself.

Researchers at Fudan University have developed a silicon photonic multiplexer chip that replaces electrons with photons. In simple terms, data will soon move at the speed of light. This isn’t science fiction. It’s the foundation for a future where processors run cooler, faster, and more efficiently than anything we’ve ever seen. Amazing that Data Starts Moving at the Speed of Light.

A Front-Row Seat to the Tech Revolution - with Data Starts Moving at the Speed of Light

I’ve spent decades watching technology evolve from the inside. When I worked at IBM, we were pushing the boundaries of computing power — from mainframes to personal systems, from copper to silicon, from isolated machines to connected networks.

I’ve seen a lot of change, but this one feels different. The rise of photonics — using light instead of electricity — is a once-in-a-century leap that redefines industries, economies, and the way we create, connect, and compute. The transition from electrons to photons is as profound as the shift from analog to digital, or from steam to electricity. It changes everything.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Light-speed computing stands on the shoulders of visionaries who made it possible to bend, route, and process light on silicon. Pioneers like Michal Lipson (Technion and Columbia), John E. Bowers (University of Minnesota and Stanford), Eli Yablonovitch (McGill and Harvard), Michael Hochberg (Caltech), and Pavel Cheben (Slovak Technical University and Complutense University of Madrid) devoted decades to the physics, materials, and engineering breakthroughs that brought photonics to life.

Their work laid the foundation for today’s breakthroughs — including the extraordinary achievement unfolding in Shanghai.

At Fudan University’s School of Information Science and Engineering, Professor Nan Chi, who earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications and completed postdoctoral research at DTU COM in Denmark and the University of Bristol in the UK, now leads a world-class team of photonics innovators. Alongside her is Professor Junwen Zhang, a Marconi Society Young Scholar and deputy director of Fudan’s MOE Key Lab for Electromagnetic Wave Information, with a Ph.D. from Fudan and research experience at Georgia Tech’s FiWIN Center.

Together with Zhou Peng and Bao Wenzhong from Fudan’s State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips & Systems, they’ve created a 38-terabit-per-second silicon photonic high-order-mode multiplexer that interfaces directly with conventional CMOS chips. This isn’t a lab experiment. It’s a viable bridge between the silicon electronics of today and the optical processors of tomorrow — a step that could reshape AI acceleration, data centers, and every connected device on earth.

The 5 Ideals of Light-Speed Innovation

Speed as Strategy – In both business and technology, velocity compounds value. The faster ideas and data move, the greater their impact.
Efficiency Without Compromise – The next frontier of growth will be defined by systems that run cooler, cleaner, and smarter.
Parallel Power – Just as light carries multiple wavelengths, innovation thrives when multiple ideas, people, and initiatives move in sync.
Hybrid Harmony – The future belongs to those who can merge the proven with the possible — integrating electronics and optics seamlessly.
From Science Fiction to Strategy – What once sounded distant now defines the next competitive edge. The future always arrives sooner than expected.

The 5 Actions for Innovators

Study the Shift – Understand what photonics and AI convergence mean for your industry before the curve hits.
Think in Conduits – Every business has an optical equivalent: faster, frictionless pathways to connection and value.
Reimagine Bandwidth – Ask yourself what could happen if information, communication, and creativity flowed 100 times faster.
Invest in Integration – Form alliances where old meets new — electronics with optics, software with hardware, people with purpose.
Stay Relentless – The leaders of this century won’t wait for light to reach them. They’ll learn to move with it.

The Takeaway

Electricity powered the 20th century. Light will power the 21st.

Entrepreneurs and innovators who understand this shift — who grasp that photons, not electrons, will define the future of computation — will lead the next industrial revolution.

If you’ve lived through the waves of innovation as I have, you can feel it in your gut: this isn’t just another incremental change. This is the dawn of the light age.