Lumai co-founder recognised in Photonics100 for 2025

Today, James Spall, co-founder at Lumai, was recognised in the prestigious Photonics100 list for 2025.

Established by Electro Optics, the accolade is a testament to exceptional contributions and achievements in the field of optics. James co-developed Lumai’s core optical technology during his PhD at the University of Oxford, and is now part of the Lumai team developing an optical AI accelerator based on this technology.

Spun out of the University of Oxford, Lumai is working with industry partners to enable AI deployment at scale using its unique 3D optical technology with the fastest, most energy-efficient AI processor. Its primary goal is to boost AI performance while drastically cutting the energy consumption and cost of processing AI at datacentre scale.

James Spall, co-founder at Lumai, commented: “There is a huge amount of innovation currently taking place in the optics industry, so it’s an honour to be recognised in the Photonics100. Improving the sustainability and energy efficiency of datacentres and processing hardware is incredibly important as the demand for AI continues to accelerate, and our 3D optical technology holds the answer to this challenge.”

Those included in the Photonics100 will gather at this year’s SPIE Photonex exhibition later this week. Attendees will discuss the role of AI and photonics, emerging technologies, and the future of the photonics workforce.

Learn more about the Photonics100 here.