Photonics is experiencing a large boom leading to thousands of inventions and new applications. Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) and investments play a critical role in sustaining the growth of the photonics industry. Read our summary of M&A deals and investments in the photonics industry for February 2026.
Mergers & Acquisitions in Photonics
At the second month of the year 2026, we are still witnessing continued M&As throughout the globe. A total of nineteen (19) M&As were recorded for this month. Eighteen (18) of these were acquisitions. The lone merger for this month is between Veeco Instruments (USA) and Axcelis Technologies (USA) which joined forces to form a leading semiconductor equipment company.
For the acquisitions noted for this month, seven (7) were made by European companies. Meanwhile, six (6) companies based in Europe were acquired during this period. Below are some of the notable M&As which involved companies based in Europe, specifically the acquisitions headed by EU companies:
- Infineon (Germany) acquired the non-optical sensor business of EPIC member ams Osram (Germany) for €570 million in a strategic divestment of ams Osram that will enable Infineon to further develop the non-optical sensor business and for ams Osram to focus in Digital Photonics.
- Siemens (Germany) acquired Canopus AI (France) to “bring AI-based metrology to semiconductor manufacturing.”
- Scantinel (Germany) acquired the assets of MicroVision (USA) which will “expand its long-range sensing in commercial vehicles and ADAS” and also “accelerate the commercial rollout of its FMCW lidar solutions.”
- Mahr (Germany) acquired the remaining three percent of the shares of NanoFocus (Germany) which will result to the latter becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mahr. The acquisition will enable Mahr, a leading metrology specialist, “to continue expanding with dimensional optical metrology.”
- SDI Group (United Kingdom), manufacturer of specialist products for use in lab equipment, industrial and scientific sensors and industrial and scientific products, acquired PRP Optoelectronics (United Kingdom), developer of custom high performance microLEDs, LED light engines and monolithic LEDs. The acquisition is expected to expand “SDI’s footprint into the resilient and lucrative aerospace and defence sector.”
- Quantum Surgical (France), a specialist in minimally invasive robotic-assisted cancer treatment technologies, acquired medical device company NeuWave Medical (USA) to “democratize robotic-assisted tumor ablation treatments to reduce cancer mortality.”
- Infinite Orbits (France), a leading in-orbit servicing company, acquired autonomous space systems LMO (Luxembourg) to establish operational presence in Luxembourg.
EPIC members likewise participated in M&As in the photonics industry for this month. In addition to the divestment made by EPIC member ams Osram in favor of Infineon, Freedom Photonics (USA), a subsidiary of EPIC member Luminar Semiconductor, agreed to be bought by Quantum Computing (USA) for $110 million.
Rounding up the M&As for February 2026 are the following significant transactions:
- SpaceX (USA) acquired xAI (USA) for $1.25 trillion to develop cutting-edge “vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth”, among others.
- Danaher (USA) acquired Masimo (USA), specialty diagnostics provider of pulse oximetry and other patient monitoring solutions, for $9.9 billion ($180 per share)
- SiTime (USA), a leading science and technology innovator, acquired the timing business assets of advanced semiconductors specialist Renesas (Japan) for $1.5 billion.
Investments
Investments for the second February of 2026 continue to pour in as we have recorded thirty-five (35) investments for this month. Twelve (12) of these were obtained by companies based in Europe, including the following:
- Wayve (United Kingdom) raised $1.2 billion in a Series D round to deploy its global autonomy platform.
- Quantonation (France) secured a funding of €220 million to aid in backing up the “industrialisation of quantum and physics-based technologies.”
- SatVu (United Kingdom) obtained $40 million from NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) and other investors as it “scales toward persistent, sovereign-relevant thermal intelligence.”
- constellr (Germany) raised €37 Million in Series A to accelerate its expansion of its “fully operational thermal intelligence capabilities and advance the system to defence grade status.”
- OQ Technology (Luxembourg) raised €25 million via a venture debt financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) which will help it develop its low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite network for direct-to-device connectivity.
- Morpheus Space (Germany), specialist in advanced electric propulsion systems for in-space mobility, secured $15 million in a Series A+ round to fuel its expansion and growth.
- Chiral (Switzerland) raised €10 million to help in its mission in unlocking post-silicon computing with nanomaterials.
EPIC members were also active in either securing or providing funding opportunities. EPIC member Vexlum (Finland) raised €10 million for the “development of semiconductor and laser manufacturing to meet global demand.” Then there’s MicroAlign (The Netherlands) which was able to obtain €2.5 million from the European Innovation Council (EIC) for the industrialization of scalable fiber arrays for quantum computing. Meanwhile, IBM Ventures, the venture capital arm of EPIC member IBM (USA), invested in SQK (USA) and QodeX Quantum (USA) for the purpose of accelerating quantum innovation.
Note: The mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as well as the investments compiled in this article are based on information readily available at the date of the publication of this article. EPIC shall update the article whenever it comes across publication of other transactions after the release of this article. Readers are encouraged to inform EPIC in case of an omission of a particular M&A or investment for the subject month. Feel free to give us an email at info@epic-photonics.com for inquiries.
