Palomino Laboratories

Palomino Laboratories is a fabless compound-semiconductor company in Goleta, California developing optical interconnect technology for AI data centers. Its products target the 0-to-50 meter interconnect range and span silicon chipsets that raise the speed of copper links, silicon optical ICs for MicroVCSEL interconnects, and silicon and gallium nitride ICs for MicroLED interconnects. In 2026 the company shipped first-generation GaN MicroLED light engine prototypes to an initial hyperscaler customer, with independently measured bandwidth exceeding its own design targets. It began trading on the OTCQB Venture Market as PALX in July 2026 and completed the acquisition of Vega Links Inc. in August 2026 to extend from device supply into complete optical links.

Uses gallium nitride MicroLEDs rather than lasers or copper to carry chip-to-chip and rack-to-rack data, aiming at a more energy-efficient short-reach optical link for AI clusters; co-founded by Akoustis founder Jeff Shealy and UCSB solid-state lighting pioneer Steven DenBaars.