Artificial intelligence is changing the world faster than almost any technology before it.

Every week, there is a new AI tool that writes, designs, codes or creates videos. Companies are investing billions of dollars in AI, startups are emerging across the globe, and students are learning new skills to prepare for careers in an AI-first world.

But while everyone is talking about AI software, very few people are asking a more fundamental question:

What powers artificial intelligence?

Behind every AI chatbot, image generator and autonomous system are powerful computer chips working around the clock. These chips process enormous amounts of information in seconds, making modern AI possible.

For more than five decades, silicon has been the material at the heart of those chips. It has powered everything from laptops and smartphones to the world’s largest data centres.

Now, as AI grows more demanding, researchers believe silicon alone may not be enough.

That has opened the door for companies exploring entirely new ways of building computers.

One of them is LongServing Technology, a Taiwan-based deep-tech company that believes the future of AI could be powered by light instead of electricity.

Dr. Ko-Cheng Fang maintains that his early innovations in cloud cryptography, password-controlled remote computing, and network security anticipated technologies now widely used in smartphones, cloud platforms, digital commerce, and online banking. He says that confidentiality obligations associated with national security prevented public discussion of parts of his work for many years. Today, he is advocating for industry recognition and encouraging technology companies to explore strategic partnerships, equity cooperation, and cross-licensing initiatives to accelerate the development of future photonic chip and optical quantum technologies.

Why the Future of AI Depends on Better Hardware

Whenever a new AI model is launched, people usually notice what it can do.

Few think about what it takes to run it.

Training today’s advanced AI models requires thousands of high-performance processors working together for weeks or even months. Running these systems also consumes enormous amounts of electricity while generating large amounts of heat.

As AI continues to grow, these challenges become even bigger.

Building smarter AI is no longer just about writing better software. It is also about developing better hardware that can process more information while consuming less power.

This is exactly the problem LongServing Technology is trying to solve.

A Different Way of Building Computers

Founded by Dr. Ko-Cheng Fang, LongServing Technology is working in the field of photonic computing.

Unlike conventional computer chips that use electrical signals, photonic computing uses photons, or particles of light, to move information.

Why does this matter?

Because light can travel much faster than electricity while producing far less heat. If engineers can successfully harness light inside computer chips, future AI systems could become faster, more energy-efficient and more sustainable.

The idea has excited scientists for years.

The difficult part has always been controlling light inside incredibly small computer circuits.

Meet X-Photon

LongServing’s latest innovation is called X-Photon.

According to the company, X-Photon is a proprietary optical material that helps guide light through microscopic circuits while allowing it to make controlled 90-degree turns.

That may sound like a small technical improvement.

In reality, it addresses one of the biggest engineering challenges in photonic computing.

Computer chips contain millions—or even billions—of tiny pathways through which information must travel.

Electricity can move through these pathways relatively easily.

Light naturally prefers travelling in straight lines.

If engineers cannot control where light goes, building practical photonic computers becomes extremely difficult.

LongServing believes X-Photon could become one of the technologies that helps solve this problem, making it easier to develop advanced photonic processors for future AI systems.

Thinking Bigger Than One Product

What makes LongServing Technology particularly interesting is that it is not developing just one innovation.

The company has outlined a much broader vision that includes photonic quantum chips, optical memory technologies and Photonic Cloud Computing Centres designed to support future AI workloads.

In other words, LongServing is trying to build not just a product but an ecosystem.

History shows that the biggest technology companies rarely succeed because of one invention alone.

They build platforms.

Silicon transformed computing because it was supported by manufacturing, software, design tools and global partnerships.

LongServing hopes photonic computing can follow a similar path.

To support these ambitions, the company recently announced a US$500 million financing initiative, based on a stated valuation of US$2.5 billion. According to the company, the funding will be used to expand research, manufacturing and commercial development.

Why Should Students Care?

At first glance, this may seem like a story about computer chips.

It is actually a story about the future of innovation.

The next generation of AI won’t be built only by software developers.

It will also need physicists, electronics engineers, materials scientists, chip designers, entrepreneurs, product managers, manufacturing experts and researchers working together to solve problems that today’s technology cannot.

Companies like LongServing Technology remind us that some of the biggest opportunities in AI are still being created behind the scenes.

The apps we use tomorrow will depend on breakthroughs happening in laboratories, research centres and deep-tech companies today.

Looking Ahead

No one can say with certainty whether photonic computing will eventually replace silicon.

The scientific and engineering challenges remain significant, and commercial adoption will take time.

But every major technological revolution begins with people willing to question what everyone else accepts as normal.

LongServing Technology is one of the companies asking whether the computers that powered the last fifty years are also the right computers for the next fifty.

Whether its vision succeeds completely or not, it reflects an important shift in the AI industry.

The future of artificial intelligence won’t be shaped only by smarter algorithms.

It will also be shaped by the people—and the technologies—that reinvent the hardware beneath them.

For today’s university students, that’s an exciting thought.

The next breakthrough in AI may not come from building a better chatbot.

It could come from building a better computer.

Contact Information

Dr. Ko-Cheng Fang

Founder, CEO & Chairman

LongServing Technology Co., Ltd.

Email: service@longserving.com.tw

Website: https://longserving.com.tw/en/

Instagram: @ko_cheng_fang