https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7137113206325432320/

If Lightmatter cannot eventually get rescued through an acquisition, fibeReality continues to have questions about the startup being able to deliver a return for its investors, based on its business game plan (please see: https://lnkd.in/gVCFi998 and https://lnkd.in/eU_g8iDi). If the vendor happened to fail, an interesting exercise involves predicting the fallout for an optical company that has been able to raise over $270 million. Perhaps the quickest response might be for the proposition that the optics industry across the board could have difficulty obtaining financing for a long time. However, we do not believe that outcome is probable, given that it would be an isolated situation, along with the surprisingly new indications of a healthy marketplace, as our latest intelligence points to a large optical component shortage at the high end, that may be sustained for a lengthy period.

The more practical consideration would be in looking at the consequences of a hypothetical failure for such a newcomer, that had been perceived to have such an extraordinarily high valuation, in three separate areas of the overall space: 1) optical computing; 2) silicon photonics; and 3) optical circuit switching. On the matter of OCS, despite the attention given to Google’s R&D work, and regardless of the appearance of a high burn rate by Lightmatter in the development of such capability, there have not been any other signs of hefty amounts of investment by venture capitalists in this direction anyway (please see: https://lnkd.in/edEd7xpX). Concerning SiPh, one would have to be extremely hesitant to foresee its inability to attract funds, even based on a theoretically devastating bankruptcy because there will likely remain an aura surrounding the technology, regardless of the inherent problems with the material that have been well-known for about 25 years (please see: https://lnkd.in/evQNmzU2) and https://lnkd.in/esZGFMJC. Yet, when it comes to optical computing, that should be expected to probably take the biggest hit in this conjectural case for a couple of important reasons: 1) Lightelligence, which culturally was evidently protected from such a totally fixed mentality, could remain viable indefinitely (please see: https://lnkd.in/etNACyg4) and 2) all the other competitors offering the concept seem to lack an adequate amount of cash to be taken seriously, with already the first casualty (please see: 
https://lnkd.in/e4JeG9CW).