A wafer-to-wafer bonded arrangement is provided comprising a VCSEL wafer and a highly thermally-conductive (HTC) wafer that are bonded together with the front side of the VCSEL wafer bonded to the HTC wafer. The VCSEL wafer is fabricated to include, at least initially, a native substrate. The HTC wafer includes a thermally-conductive, non-native substrate. All or a portion of the native substrate may be removed after performing wafer-to-wafer bonding. In effect, the HTC wafer becomes the substrate of the bonded pair. During operation of VCSEL dies diced from the bonded wafer, heat generated by the dies flows into the non-native substrate where the heat spreads out and is dissipated. Laser light generated by the VCSEL die is emitted through the back side of the VCSEL die.