Biren Technology, MoKe Shensi, and Step Created the First Optoelectronic AI Product

In July 2026 in Beijing, three Chinese technology companies — spatial-optical chip startup MoKe Shensi (每刻深思), AI accelerator manufacturer Biren Technology (壁仞科技), and AI company Step (阶跃) — signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Together, the partners presented the world's first AI product combining optical chips and universal electrical accelerators in a single computing system, as well as an optoelectronic AI computing platform.

What is optoelectronic AI architecture

Today, the vast majority of AI computations are performed on GPUs — graphics processors running on electrical circuits. NVIDIA's dominance in this segment is so great that the availability of its chips largely determines the pace of AI development in different countries.

Optical computing offers a fundamentally different approach: data is processed using photons — light particles — instead of electrons. This allows matrix multiplications, which form the basis of neural network operations, to be performed at the speed of light and with significantly lower energy consumption compared to traditional GPUs.

The historical barrier has been the limited programmability of optical circuits: they handle fixed matrix operations well but lag behind electronics in flexibility. A hybrid approach, in which the optical subsystem handles heavy computations while the electrical subsystem provides control and adaptation, overcomes this limitation — it is precisely on this that MoKe Shensi's architecture is built.

What the three partners announced

At the signing ceremony in Beijing, the alliance presented two joint products:

• Optoelectronic AI computing platform — a unified solution combining MoKe Shensi optical chips and Biren Technology electrical accelerators in a shared software-hardware environment
• World's first commercial AI product in the intelligent computing category — a commercial system in which optical and universal electrical components work together

The trio closes different links in the chain: MoKe Shensi develops photonic processors, Biren Technology manufactures electrical AI accelerators and has accumulated experience building closed computing ecosystems, and Step runs and operates large language models, serving as a practical tester of the new platform.

Why this matters for China

American export restrictions in recent years have effectively cut off China's access to advanced silicon GPUs — most notably NVIDIA's A100 and H100 class products. This created an acute shortage of computing power and pushed local players to seek alternative paths.

Optical components are manufactured under different production standards and are subject to American sanctions to a much lesser extent. A successful hybrid optoelectronic platform opens a new technological corridor for China — independent of restrictions regulating silicon GPU supplies.

What this means

Optical computing has been discussed in academic circles since the 1980s, but until now the technology never reached the level of commercial AI products. The agreement between MoKe Shensi, Biren Technology, and Step is the first publicly announced case of a commercial AI product on a hybrid optoelectronic architecture.

If the platform meets expectations, it could open a new class of AI infrastructure — relevant both for China seeking technological independence and for other markets interested in AI computing without dependence on dominant Western platforms.