GlobalFoundries announced today that the United States Government, under the administration of Donald J. Trump, has signed a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce to advance next-generation silicon photonics technologies. Notably, GlobalFoundries will receive $300 million from the CHIPS Act fund, while the U.S. Government will acquire approximately a 1% equity stake in the company. As some may recall, GlobalFoundries ceased its efforts in leading-edge node research, development, and manufacturing just as the industry was transitioning to 7 nm. However, the company has since shifted its focus to other technologies, such as silicon photonics, which are becoming increasingly valuable in the era of AI expansion.

GlobalFoundries stated that this funding will be used to develop next-generation silicon photonics and advanced packaging, focusing on near-packaged optics (NPO), co-packaged optics (CPO), 3D hybrid bonding, and novel material development. The company recently introduced its SCALE (Silicon Photonics Co-Packaged Advanced Light Engine) platform, which supports 400 Gb/s package transfers with high energy efficiency. They plan to invest these R&D funds in their manufacturing facilities in Malta, New York, and Burlington, Vermont, fulfilling their commitment to develop manufacturing capabilities on U.S. soil.

Lightmatter, the leader in photonic (super)computing, today announced a foundational advancement in laser architecture: Very Large Scale Photonics (VLSP). Embodied in the Guide light engine, this breakthrough creates the industry's most integrated laser platform supporting unprecedented bandwidths—moving laser manufacturing from manual assembly lines toward foundry production. VLSP technology leverages large-scale photonic integration to overcome power-scaling limitations, enabling the photonic interconnect roadmap for AI with an initial 8X increase in optical bandwidth density, unprecedented deployment scalability, and wavelength stability.

Just as Lightmatter's Passage photonic interconnects have shattered shoreline bandwidth limitations with their unique 3D architecture, the company's new Guide light engine represents a giant leap forward in laser technology. The largest AI clusters in hyperscale data centers now depend on connectivity that is fundamentally constrained by bandwidth density—limited not only by I/O at the chip edges but also by the fact that even the most advanced photonic interconnects are only as capable as the laser technology that powers them.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Mozilla's entire advocacy team was caught in a round of layoffs, leading to speculation that Mozilla would be giving up its advocacy entirely, shifting to a more commercial focus. Now, with the announcement of Mozilla's new branding, aside from updating the brand's look, it seems as though the Firefox company wants to reassure users of its software that it is still dedicated to its mission to "keep the internet free, open, and accessible." The new branding strategy includes a new logo, typeface family, new icons, a T. rex mascot, and new colors.

The new branding push from Mozilla sees the brand move an appearance seemingly inspired by both its history and the text-based OS interfaces of the early years of computing. For the rebranding, Mozilla partnered with design firm JKR (Jones Knowles Ritchie), and the new branding features a cutesy DOS-style flag that doubles as a T. rex, hinting to past Mozilla logos. In the announcement of the rebranding, boldly titled "Reclaim the internet: Mozilla's rebrand for the next era of tech," Mozilla emphasizes that the new look is meant to convey the company's intention throughout its whole ecosystem of products. It seems as though Mozilla is trying to remind everyone that it's work towards a more open internet extends beyond just the advocacy team it recently laid off.