€1.49M HAETAE project aims to deliver ultra-efficient photonic processors that boost cybersecurity, speed up digital services, and ease future energy demand
A team of leading European and South Korean researchers is developing a new generation of artificial intelligence processors that run on light instead of electricity, in a breakthrough that could sharply reduce the energy consumption of future digital services while enhancing their security.
The international collaboration, supported by the €1.49 million EU‑funded HAETAE project, aims to address one of the biggest technological challenges of the coming decades: the surging electricity demand created by AI, cloud computing, streaming, healthcare systems, transportation networks, and financial services. As AI workloads expand at exponential pace, energy experts warn that global power grids will face immense strain without radical innovation in computing efficiency.
“By using light rather than electricity to perform calculations, we can make AI dramatically faster and far more energy‑efficient opening the door to entirely new computing capabilities.”
— Miltiadis Moralis, Coordinator, HAETAE Consortium
Long‑term modelling from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and the EUROPA think tank shows that Europe alone will require massive renewable capacity expansion and a far smarter grid by 2050 to meet rising digital and industrial energy needs. The HAETAE initiative seeks to relieve this looming bottleneck by developing photonic chips capable of reducing AI-related energy consumption by up to tenfold.
Unlike traditional processors that rely on electrons, the HAETAE hardware uses photons particles of light to perform calculations. Just as optical fibre revolutionised data transmission, photonic computing promises dramatic gains in speed, heat reduction, and efficiency.
“To put it simply, if we think of today’s AI hardware as a steam engine, this new photonics technology has jet propulsion,” said Moralis. Beyond energy efficiency, the photonic architecture also improves cybersecurity for cloud and next-generation AI systems.
The project is a flagship EU–South Korea partnership, uniting Europe’s photonics leadership with South Korea’s semiconductor expertise. Partners include Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (project coordinator), IMEC in Belgium, AkhETonics in Germany, and Korea’s KAIST and DGIST.
A major portion of the research is being driven from Thessaloniki, further strengthening Greece’s emerging role as a European hub for photonics, optical computing, and semiconductor innovation.
Running until 2027, HAETAE aims to lay the scientific and industrial foundations for next‑generation, ultra‑efficient photonic AI hardware.