NantOptiFab sells $20M offering to one investor for US photonics foundry

Why it matters

AI infrastructure increasingly depends on optical links that can move data faster without matching increases in power consumption. NantOptiFab's fully sold $20M offering gives Henry Hung additional capital to pursue US production across TFLN, silicon and silicon-nitride photonics, with Patrick Soon-Shiong serving as a director.

NantOptiFab executive Henry Hung sold $20 million of equity to a single investor as the young foundry pursues US production of the optical components needed to move data through AI systems.

The offering was fully subscribed, with zero remaining, according to an SEC Form D filed August 27. NantOptiFab made the first sale on August 12 under Rule 506(b), an exemption commonly used for private placements. The filing lists no sales commissions or finder's fees.

Hung signed the filing as an executive officer and director. He has spent years working in fiber optics and photonics through Optilab, where public records have identified him as a managing partner. Patent records also list Hung as an inventor on Optilab technology for thin-film lithium niobate electro-optical modulators, the same class of material NantOptiFab is positioning at the center of its manufacturing business.

The other name on the filing is Patrick Soon-Shiong, the surgeon, drug inventor and serial founder behind NantWorks, American Pharmaceutical Partners and Abraxis BioScience. Soon-Shiong is identified as NantOptiFab's preferred director. The filing does not identify the investor or establish that Soon-Shiong supplied the $20 million.

Soon-Shiong built his fortune by turning difficult scientific processes into manufactured products, including the cancer drug Abraxane. NantOptiFab applies a similar operating premise outside healthcare: owning the equipment and processes needed to turn promising photonics research into repeatable chips.

One investor, two private placements

The August offering follows a private placement disclosed less than a year ago. NantOptiFab's November 26, 2025 Form D reported five investors, with the first sale occurring on September 30, 2025. The supplied materials conflict on the earlier offering amount, so they do not establish cumulative proceeds across the two filings.

The filings do not specify an ownership percentage, total capitalization or the identity of any investor. Neither filing discloses revenue, customers, headcount, shipments, pricing or valuation.

Five investors participated in the first placement, while one investor purchased the entire second offering. The filing does not say whether that investor is strategic, institutional or an individual.

NantOptiFab lists a Phoenix principal office in the SEC documents. Its corporate website says its California facilities produce thin-film lithium niobate, silicon and silicon-nitride wafers, chips and photonic devices.

The bet is on AI's optical bottleneck

NantOptiFab is entering the market as AI infrastructure builders confront the cost and power required to move enormous volumes of data between processors, servers and data-center clusters. Copper electrical connections become less efficient as bandwidth requirements and distances increase. Photonic interconnects move that information using light.

Thin-film lithium niobate, commonly shortened to TFLN, is useful for components that convert high-speed electronic signals into optical ones. A 2025 review in Nature Reviews Physics described the platform as combining strong electro-optic coupling with low optical loss and high microwave bandwidth. Those properties have made TFLN a candidate for fast, power-efficient modulators used in communications, computing and quantum systems.

Hung's manufacturing background matters because the commercial challenge has moved beyond demonstrating an impressive device in a laboratory. Customers need qualified processes, repeatable yields, packaging, testing and design tools that let engineers build products without reinventing the fabrication process for every chip.

NantOptiFab says its California facilities contain more than 1,000 precision tools covering lithography, etching, deposition, ion implantation, metallization, stacking, testing and metrology. NantOptiFab also claims that fabrication is performed in-house using a fully US-based supply chain. Those descriptions come from NantOptiFab; the SEC filing establishes the financing and corporate address, rather than production volumes, yields or customer shipments.

That distinction will define what Hung has built. A long equipment list demonstrates access to machinery. A durable foundry needs stable processes that customers can design around, then return to when a prototype becomes a product.

A crowded push toward optical manufacturing

Larger semiconductor suppliers and venture-backed photonics developers are already investing around the same bottleneck. GlobalFoundries acquired Advanced Micro Foundry in November 2025, adding a Singapore silicon-photonics operation with a 200-millimeter platform and plans to expand its capacity. GlobalFoundries framed the acquisition around optical communications for AI data centers.

OpenLight raised a $34 million Series A in August 2025 to expand a photonics platform that combines indium phosphide components with silicon. OpenLight's pitch centers on a foundry-validated process design kit, production reference designs and a path for customers to reach volume manufacturing.

NantOptiFab is taking a broader materials approach, presenting TFLN alongside silicon and silicon nitride rather than tying itself to a single photonics platform. That breadth could let Hung serve telecom, defense and quantum customers while the timing of AI infrastructure spending creates a more immediate commercial opening.

The $20 million filing shows that one investor purchased the entire offering. Hung's next task is the foundry problem that capital alone cannot settle: turning specialized equipment and material expertise into a process customers can trust for production.