Introducing the Taara chip

Taara’s journey began with a bold question: could we harness the speed of light to deliver data without the need for cables? For the past seven years, my team has been on a mission to provide abundant, fast, affordable internet connectivity using beams of light. From the bustling streets of Nairobi, to cities straddling the world’s deepest river, Taara’s wireless optical communication links have delivered fiber-like speeds to communities too remote, too expensive, or too geographically challenging to be served with traditional connectivity solutions.

From the beginning, we've focused on reducing the cost and complexity of Taara's technology to bring the benefits of light-based communications to more people. Today, I'm excited to share an important milestone: our next-generation Taara chip.

Our silicon photonic chip uses light to transmit high-speed data through the air. While our first-generation technology, the Taara Lightbridge, steers light physically using a system of mirrors, sensors, and hardware, this new chip uses software to steer, track, and correct the beam of light without bulky moving parts. We've taken most of the core functionality of the Taara Lightbridge—which is the size of a traffic light—and shrunken it down to the size of a fingernail.

_{The Taara chip}

A bandwidth bottleneck

The world is reaching a critical inflection point in data connectivity. As global demand for data surges—from streaming services to AI applications—the capacity of our existing infrastructure is struggling to keep pace.

Fiber is high-speed connectivity's gold standard, but it's often unsuitable because it's costly, impractical, or geographically impossible. Meanwhile, we’re hitting a wall on the electromagnetic spectrum: traditional radio frequency bands are congested and running out of available bandwidth, making it harder to support 5G expansion and keep up our growing demand for fast, reliable connectivity.

_{There's near-infinite bandwidth in the optical domain where Taara’s technologies operate.}

Breaking fiber's boundaries

This is where Taara comes in. Our technology operates in the optical domain, where bandwidth is virtually limitless. Just as traditional fiber uses light to carry data through in-ground cables, Taara uses a very narrow, invisible light beam to transmit data at speeds as high as 20 gigabits per second  (Gbps), up to distances of 20 kilometers.

When we developed the Taara Lightbridge, we created a new way of sending beams of light between two units to create a link. We use a system of mirrors, sensors, precision optics, and smart software to mechanically align the beam to exactly where it needs to be. When two beams find each other, they lock together to form a secure link to transmit data. These units can be installed in hours instead of the days, months, or even years it can take to lay fiber.

_{The Taara Lightbridge steers light mechanically using a system of mirrors, sensors, and precision optics to align the beam.}

While the Taara Lightbridge steers the light physically, with Taara’s chip we've removed many of the mechanical components and designed a solid-state solution for automatic beam steering. At the heart of this innovation is the optical phased array, an advanced system that steers, tracks, and corrects light with extraordinary precision. On each Taara chip there are hundreds of tiny light emitters. By using software to control when each of these emit light, we can manipulate the light's wavefront and direct it where it needs to go.

_{Taara’s chip uses solid-state steering. Software controls how the chip’s emitters steer, track, and correct the beam of light.}

In tests at the Moonshot Factory labs, our team has successfully transmitted data at 10 Gbps (gigabits per second) over distances of 1 kilometer outdoors using two Taara chips. We believe this is the first time silicon photonics chips have transmitted such high-capacity data outdoors at this distance. And this is just the beginning. We plan to extend both the chip’s range and capacity by creating an iteration with thousands of emitters.

An abundant future

Our team imagines a future where connectivity isn’t bound by cables or constrained by cost. By dramatically reducing the size and complexity of our systems, our aim is to eventually drastically reduce the cost of connectivity, creating a network effect within the industry.

The convergence of advanced semiconductor processes and our experience deploying hundreds of our links in more than a dozen countries offered us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink connectivity.

Using chips deployed in a global mesh network, we see opportunities to bring high-speed internet to underserved regions, rethink the way data centers are built and operated, enable faster, create safer communication for autonomous vehicles, and so much more. The possibilities are as boundless as light itself.

Taara’s chip will be available in our next product launching in 2026. However, before then, we’re inviting researchers and innovators interested in exploring new applications for this technology to please get in touch.