Nvidia announced on Monday that it is investing $2 billion each Lumentum And consistentBoth of which are developing photonics technologies for data centers, such as optical transceivers, circuit switches and lasers, which are used to transfer data at high speeds over long distances. Their technology could improve energy efficiency, data transfer speeds, and bandwidth in future AI data centers, as Nvidia has already capitalized on its 2020 acquisition of network hardware company Mellanox to strengthen NVLink and increase the amount of data moving between its GPUs.
For Lumentum, the non-exclusive multi-year deal also includes a “multibillion purchase commitment and future capacity access rights for advanced laser components” as well as support for the expansion of R&D and manufacturing. Coherent’s deal is similarly described as, “a multibillion-dollar purchase commitment and future access and capacity rights to advanced laser and optical networking products.”
The growth of agentic AI, such as Anthropic’s Cloud Cowork and Microsoft’s Copilot Tasks, is increasing the bandwidth requirements of AI data centers to help execute multiple tasks quickly. photonics can offer solutions – Optical fibers are able to support significantly higher bandwidth and lower latency than copper cables, while also using less power.
Nvidia isn’t the only organization focusing on photonics. Last month, DARPA put out A call for research proposals To improve photonic computing, especially as it relates to AI applications. Nvidia’s rival AMD also Acquires silicon photonics startup Anosami last year, which said it would “accelerate” AMD’s optics innovation for its AI systems.
