Market Watch

This year, we ask a different question. AI needs optical networks – but how is AI transforming the optical industry itself? Beyond supplying hardware to AI data centers, a quiet revolution is reshaping component design, smart manufacturing and network operations. There are interesting...

As AI workloads push data center interconnects beyond 800G toward 1.6T and 3.2T per lane, traditional pluggable optics are reaching their limits in power consumption, signal integrity and port density. Multiple packaging paradigms, e.g., CPO, NPO and emerging XPO, promise dramatic improvements...

Coherent technology has been touted to enter the data centers for some time. Thus far, the higher cost compared to IM-DD technology has been a major hurdle. As we move to higher data rates, 1.6T and beyond, implementation of IM-DD becomes increasingly challenging. Coherent lite has recently...

What will be the winning technology to address the higher speeds? Besides the existing solutions using Indium Phosphide and Silicon Photonics, new approaches are emerging using TFLN, Polymers and maybe other materials. We will have a team of experts from each of these companies using that...

This panel will examine whether acquisition has effectively become the default—or only viable—exit path for photonics startups, and what that implies for innovation, capital formation and long-term industry structure. Unlike software, photonics ventures face capital-intensive...