- Founder and CEO, Lightmatter13
Nicholas (Nick) Harris is the founder and CEO of Lightmatter, a photonics company founded by MIT researchers in 2017 that builds optical interconnects, light engines and reference systems for large AI computing clusters. Harris co-authored early research on running neural networks on programmable nanophotonic circuits.12
At a glance
- Current role
- Founder and CEO
- Company
- Lightmatter
- Sector
- Company
- Fields
- Chips and hardware
- Education
- MIT
- Work listed
- 2
- Sources cited
- 4
- Profile reviewed
Career
In 2016 Harris co-authored, with Yichen Shen, Dirk Englund, Marin Soljačić and others, a paper on deep learning with coherent nanophotonic circuits. Lightmatter was founded by MIT researchers in 2017, and its leadership page lists Harris as founder and CEO.21
Lightmatter's other founders listed today are Darius Bunandar, its chief scientist, and Thomas Graham, its head of machine learning.1
Products and projects
Lightmatter describes its work as building photonic infrastructure for AI: interconnects, lasers and, eventually, compute itself. In March 2025 the company announced the Passage M1000 photonic interposer and the Passage L200 co-packaged optics product.13
In January 2026 the company introduced Guide, a light engine built on what it calls Very Large Scale Photonics, which integrates many lasers on one platform to move laser production toward foundry manufacturing.4
Work and contributions
Deep Learning with Coherent Nanophotonic Circuits
Co-author of a 2016 paper proposing a fully optical neural network architecture and experimentally demonstrating essential parts of it on a programmable nanophotonic processor.2
Passage M1000
Lightmatter's 3D photonic interposer reference platform for connecting XPUs and switches, announced in March 2025 alongside the Passage L200 co-packaged optics, with Harris quoted as founder and CEO.3
Timeline
- Co-authored the paper Deep Learning with Coherent Nanophotonic Circuits.2
- Founded Lightmatter with fellow MIT researchers.1
- Lightmatter announced the Passage M1000 photonic interposer and Passage L200 co-packaged optics.3
- Lightmatter named the Guide light engine as the companion laser source for Passage M1000.3
Where they work
- Lightmatter 2 people in the wiki
Related people
- Darius BunandarAlso at Lightmatter
- Sanjay MehrotraChips and hardware
- Chuck RobbinsChips and hardware
- Max KrasnyanskyChips and hardware
- Sean LieChips and hardware
- Marques BrownleeChips and hardware
- Jeff JohnsonChips and hardware
- Krste AsanovićChips and hardware
- Johny SroujiChips and hardware
- Scott DeBoerChips and hardware
Suggest a correction or removal
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References
4 sources · profile reviewed Oct 21, 2026 · data updated Oct 21, 2026