Light-based data transmission provider Taara has spun off from Alphabet’s X Moonshot incubator and will now be an independent provider of internet service for rural and otherwise hard-to-reach areas.
Taara is widely seen as a potential competitor to Starlink, though the two companies’ offerings contrast in significant ways.
Taara’s technology transfers data via a light beam that travels between terminals about the size of a traffic light. Transmission speeds reach an impressive 20 Gbps over a distance of 20 kilometers. A network of these terminals can be erected on towers to serve users in rural or remote regions, or in congested areas like sporting or music events. This above-ground network is far easier and cheaper to install than fiber, and can be self-funded by communities in rural regions.
In late February, Taara unveiled a next-generation chip that shrinks the company’s light-steering technology down to the size of a fingernail. It offers better data transfer than previous iterations, enabling data transmission of 10 Gbps over a one kilometer distance.
“We believe this is the first time silicon photonics chips have transmitted such high-capacity data outdoors at this distance,” said Taara founder and General Manager Mahesh Krishnaswamy in a blog post. “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.” The company plans to include the chip in a product launch in 2026.
Krishnaswamy pointed to the many use cases that Taara’s technology will support in addition to offering high-speed Internet to underserved regions. These light-based chips will enable users to “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, with its new chapter as an independent company, is clearly a startup, with only about two dozen employees, though it’s in rapid hiring mode. Launched in 2017, it obtained funding from Series X Capital, and Alphabet will continue to hold a minority stake.
These modest resources are stretched wide: Taara’s technology is deployed in more than 12 countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its partners include T-Mobile, for which it supports big events; Airtel in India for city environments where fiber isn’t feasible; and Liquid Intelligent Technologies in Africa, where it serves tens of thousands of users in dozens of communities.
As Taara grows, it’s positioning itself as a rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceX initiative Starlink. That’s a big challenge. Launched in 2020, Starlink’s low Earth orbit (LEO) network of thousands of small satellites offers high-speed Internet via radio signals, and claims some 4.6 million subscribers as of December 2024. Yet Taara’s Krishnaswamy is undeterred. “We can offer 10, if not 100 times more bandwidth to an end user than a typical Starlink antenna, and do it for a fraction of the cost,” he said to Wired.
The two potential rivals have contrasting business models. While Starlink sells subscriptions direct to consumers, Taara delivers services through existing telecom players, like in its partnership with T-Mobile. But a greater contrast is the underlying technology, with Starlink’s satellite network excelling in high-speed web access and Taara’s photonic chip technology enabling data transmission for both Internet and—as Krishnaswamy touted—new possibilities in data center design, self-driving cars, and other uses. In any case, in a world where data connectivity is so highly prized, there’s room for myriad providers.
