News: LEDs
26 October 2026
Palomino gains first commercial purchase order from strategic hyperscaler customer
Artificial intelligence (AI) interconnect technology company Palomino Laboratories Inc of Goleta, CA, USA has received its first purchase order (PO) from a strategic hyperscaler customer. The PO includes a statement of work (SOW) for the delivery of high-performance gallium nitride (GaN) micro-LED chips for optical interconnect applications within AI infrastructure.
The firm believes that this initial PO represents validation of its core market thesis. Specifically, micro-LED technology originally designed for the display market is not optimized for optical interconnect applications and therefore must be engineered specifically for high-speed data. Subsequently, micro-LED chip performance must be tailored to AI data-center link budgets and aligned to customer system requirements.
Under the SOW, Palomino expects to improve both nanomaterial and micro-LED design to increase output power and fiber coupling efficiency performance, consistent with the company’s technical roadmap. All other micro-LED technical parameters from Palomino’s technology platform are compliant with the customer’s target requirements.
“This first commercial PO from our hyperscaler customer is a significant corporate milestone for Palomino. It confirms that leading AI infrastructure customers recognize that micro-LEDs for optical interconnects must be engineered for bandwidth, reliability and efficiency driven by the AI market,” says co-founder & CEO Jeffrey B. Shealy. “This SOW aligns directly with our AI interconnect product roadmap, and we are executing with urgency to deliver technical performance while addressing the manufacturing supply chain required for volume production,” he adds.
“Micro-LEDs are a powerful device platform and optical interconnect architectures impose very different performance constraints relative to those for display applications” notes co-founder & director Dr Steven DenBaars. “Palomino’s work is grounded in foundational GaN micro-LED innovation and protected by our IP portfolio that includes licence rights to University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) patents. This PO reflects growing customer recognition that novel material science and micro-LED device design are crucial to unlock the efficiency advantages needed for next-generation AI interconnects.”
Palomino believes that the receipt of this first PO is consistent with, and supports, the company’s previously stated objective that it would secure a development contract from a strategic AI customer in fiscal fourth-quarter 2026. The firm expects that this work will further strengthen customer engagement and accelerate progress toward micro-LED-enabled optical interconnect solutions for short-reach AI systems.
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