The development of the optical interconnection industry is accelerating, and NVIDIA, Credo, and GlobalFoundries are accelerating their deployment on the silicon photonics track.

Silicon photonics technology is standing at the critical point of a new round of industrial explosion. As the forefront of deeply integrating photonic devices with silicon-based semiconductor processes, silicon photonics has demonstrated unique advantages in the field of optical communications that traditional optoelectronic solutions cannot match: On the one hand, it continues the large-scale manufacturing capabilities of the CMOS process and integrates originally separated optical components onto a single chip, significantly reducing complexity and mass production costs.

On the other hand, as the demand for artificial intelligence computing power increases exponentially, silicon photonics is becoming the key to breaking through the bottleneck of internal communication in data centers with its high bandwidth density, low transmission delay and excellent energy efficiency ratio. As the industry accelerates its evolution from "electrical interconnection" to "optical interconnection", companies such as NVIDIA, Credo, and GlobalFoundries have also recently intensively released major layout signals in the field of silicon optical communications.

NVIDIA: Spectrum-X silicon optical switches are in full mass production

According to news on June 2, NVIDIA recently announced that its Spectrum-X Ethernet silicon optical technology has entered full mass production. This move is undoubtedly one of the most significant developments in the industry.

The new generation of Spectrum-X switches is based on the CPO architecture and is specifically designed to support the Vera Rubin platform in deploying millions of GPU-level AI factories within data centers and across regions.

Spectrum-X switches also recently completed a strategic acquisition. On June 2, Credo announced that it had completed the acquisition of DustPhotonics, an Israeli silicon photonics start-up.

It is reported that Credo will acquire the entire equity of DustPhotonics for an upfront consideration of US$750 million in cash and approximately 920,000 common shares. In addition, depending on the achievement of certain financial milestones, an additional contingent consideration of up to approximately 3.21 million shares may be paid. Therefore, the total value of the transaction could be up to approximately US$1.3 billion.

Founded in 2017, DustPhotonics is deeply involved in silicon photonic integrated circuit technology under the fabless model. Although the team only has about 70 people, it has formed a differentiated chip product portfolio at 400G, 800G and even 1.6T rates, and has planned a 3.2T technology evolution route. Its technical solution effectively reduces device complexity and improves manufacturing yield by integrating key optical functions into a single chip.

It is worth noting that before the acquisition was completed, Credo had established a solid position in the field of high-speed electrical connections with its ZeroFlap optical modules, Cardinal series digital signal processors and PILOT software platform, but the core components at the optical level still relied on external supplies.

By bringing DustPhotonics’ silicon photonics technology under its ownership, Credo is able to complete key puzzle pieces and form a vertically integrated technology system covering SerDes, digital signal processing, silicon photonics and system integration. It is expected that its optical business revenue will exceed the US$500 million mark in fiscal year 2027.

Sweden's Sivers and GlobalFoundries jointly develop silicon photonics solutions

In addition, collaboration in the upstream of the silicon photonics industry chain is also accelerating and deepening. Swedish semiconductor company Sivers and American wafer foundry giant GlobalFoundries recently announced a strategic cooperation to jointly develop silicon photonics solutions for the fast-growing AI infrastructure market.

Sivers is not the first to enter the field of optical communications. Its subsidiary Sivers Photonics relies on its own InP100 product platform and British wafer fab. It has previously supplied the industry with distributed feedback laser arrays that comply with the CW-WDM multi-source protocol standard, and cooperated with Ayar Labs to demonstrate the SuperNova light source solution that can operate without active cooling at OFC 2023.

Since the launch of the industry's first Fotonix platform that integrates 300mm photonic devices and radio frequency CMOS on a single silicon wafer in 2022, GlobalFoundries has continued to increase its silicon photonics production capacity. In September last year, it announced an investment of US$400 million to expand a dedicated production line at its Malta, New York, factory.

In this cooperation, Sivers' laser array will be integrated into the reference design of GF's silicon photonics platform and serve its SCALE CPO platform, providing core light source support for next-generation optical subassemblies and light engine architectures.

Summary

Looking at the recent intensive industrial dynamics, silicon optical communications has steadily moved from technical concept to large-scale commercial use. Judging from previous predictions by TrendForce, optical interconnection technology based on silicon photonics and CPO will be the first to be introduced into Scale-Out for data transmission between NVIDIA Rubin generation cabinets, and it is planned to integrate optical interconnection into the future Scale-up interconnection architecture to achieve higher bandwidth density.

According to estimates by TrendForce, the CPO penetration rate of optical communication modules used in AI data centers in 2026 will only be about 0.5%. As silicon photonics and CPO packaging technologies become more sophisticated, cross-cabinet Scale-Up optical interconnect data transmission will begin to appear in the Rubin Ultra or Feynman generations at the earliest. As data transmission bandwidth continues to increase, TrendForce estimates that by around 2030, the penetration rate of Silicon Photonics CPO in AI data centers may reach 35%.