According to a report by TechCrunch on February 19, the Canada-based optical interconnect startup Hyperlume has secured a $12.5 million seed round—an infusion that underscores growing interest from major backers including Intel Capital. Hyperlume is on a mission to develop low-cost, chip-to-chip optical interconnect technology designed specifically for the short-range communications found in AI computing racks. In today’s data centers, where energy consumption hit 4.4% of U.S. electricity in 2023 and could soar to 12% by 2028, a significant share of power is devo…