• Technical Conference:  15 – 19 March 2026
  • Exhibition: 17 – 19 March 2026
  • Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, California, USA

The Marriage of AI and Optical Networking

Wednesday, 02 April, 15:45 – 16:45

Theater III

The advent of AI is creating new opportunities for the optical networking market. A marriage of AI and optical is being driven on two fronts—optical vendors building networking gear to connect data centers and connecting devices inside data centers. Cignal AI revealed that spending on Datacom optical components continues to rise as AI applications of 400GbE and 800GbE optical modules for AI applications drive demand to record levels. AI is also driving new optical wavelength service trends. Led by AT&T, Lumen, Verizon, Cogent and even regional providers like Summit Broadband, Vertical Systems Group forecast that optical wavelength revenue in the U.S. is driven by strong customer demand for retail gigabit circuits spurred by AI implementations.

Join Lightwave+BTR for an interactive discussion with industry experts on the marriage between AI and optics. Moderated by Sean Buckley, Editor-in-Chief of Lightwave+BTR, the panel will discuss industry trends and outline challenges for optical networking companies building the technology that drives the AI movement.

Moderator

Sean Buckley, Editor in Chief, Lightwave, United States

Panelists

Matthew Adams, Senior Product Manager, Viavi Solutions, Canada

Darius Bunandar, PhD, Founder and Chief Scientist, Lightmatter, United States

David Calhoun, Technical Director of Advanced Engineering at Precision Optical Technologies, United States

Todd Haugen, CEO, Enablence Components, United States

Tobias Muller, Co-founder & CCO at AIXEMTEC, Germany

Terry Thorn, VP Commercial Operations at Ayar Labs