At VLSI 2026, Intel showed a fully working silicon photonics microring DWDM transceiver: 16 wavelengths at 50Gb/s each for 800Gb/s per fiber, all with BER<1e-9, at about 5.7pJ/b, with 22nm CMOS stacked directly on the photonic chip in an open-cavity package. We break down this device-to-system CPO reference design figure by figure.

As AI training outgrows a single site, Scale Across is the new normal. How Meta defines the next generation of interconnect, why Google says "fiber is the new wavelength," and the strategy behind Lumen's push to add 41 million fiber miles.

Can a VCSEL go 2 km? At OFC 2026, Furukawa Electric showed an ultra-compact 800G CPO transceiver that uses 1060-nm single-mode VCSELs to hit 4.1 pJ/bit over standard single-mode fiber, challenging silicon photonics in AI interconnects.

An open-source Verilog-A model library finally lets silicon photonics transceivers be designed at 64 Gbps inside standard electronic circuit simulators, adding the RF and noise modeling the industry long skipped, all validated against hardware. Against GlobalFoundries Fotonix, a closed solution topping out at 26.5 Gbaud, it is an open counterexample worth keeping.

AI traffic is reshaping network architecture. Nokia's Q1 highlight was not traditional telecom but 49% revenue growth from AI/cloud customers. With its new San Jose InP fab about to come online, how is Nokia using vertical integration to pull ahead in the 800G wave?

While the market waits for CPO, Google wrote its answer into 134,000 TPUs with Virgo Network. What holds this fabric up is not exotic packaging but an OCS optical switch six years in the making, and the winners are pluggable optical modules and their upstream suppliers.

The Big Four CSPs lifted 2026 capex to USD 725B, NVIDIA declared the arrival of agentic AI, and Cisco doubled its AI order outlook. Yet Chinese module makers' "revenue up, profit lagging" signal shows margin in this optical bull run shifting upstream to EML/InP and epitaxy.

AOI is entering the phase where capacity turns into cash. With its Texas 800G lines ready and 1.6T orders in hand, management raised full-year guidance. Amid laser component shortages, AOI's vertical integration is set to be its biggest growth driver in 2026.

Record revenue and earnings! Despite Datacom component shortages, Fabrinet delivered a strong quarter on robust DCI and HPC demand. More importantly, FN announced its entry into the direct-to-hyperscaler supply chain and a move into CPO through a strategic investment in Raytek.

Arista delivered its strongest cash flow ever, yet management said plainly that "demand is the best, supply is the opposite tale." The AI target was raised to $3.5B, Scale-Across data center interconnect was the biggest surprise, and XPO opens the next decade-long optics race.

Alphabet lifted its 2026 capex guide to as much as $205B, so the AI capex ceiling still holds. The real signal this week is a three-way split in optical: China strong, US names awaiting proof, Eoptolink pulling away from TFC, and Taiwan's module makers showing the widest gap. In H2, picking the right segment matters more than picking the direction.

Ciena's Q2 FY26 revenue grew 40% and gross margin guidance was raised for a third straight quarter, but the real signal is RLS Hyper-Rail winning the industry's first multi-rail order. With a $7.7B backlog, pump laser and CDM modem supply bottlenecks are now the true ceiling.

Viavi's Q4 FY2026 beat the top of guidance on all three metrics, but the real signal is a new revenue engine: data center plus aerospace & defense drove nearly 70% NSE growth, and telecom capex is no longer the ceiling. Management pulled its $500M quarterly target forward a year as CPO test revenue began.

Celestica grew revenue 62% and EPS 83% YoY with a record operating margin, raising full-year guidance for the second time. The real signal: OpenAI custom rack orders surfaced, AMD Helios scale-up became a multi-billion-dollar pipeline, and 2027 growth is set to be even faster.

It takes fourteen kinds of engineers to build an optical module, and design is only half of them. The free section walks through what each of the fourteen functions does; the four hand-off interfaces that really set the pace of yield ramp are broken down in the paid section.

"OSFP 800G SR8" is not a part number — it is five axes stacked together. Learn form factor, data rate, reach, electrical I/O and light source, and you can read any optical module spec and see why two 800G modules can differ 3x in price. Interactive lookup tool included.

1.6T is a generational shift up from 800G. Tear down both modules side by side: DSP goes from 80 to 130, each light source costs 3-4x more, and SiPh penetration rises from 40-45% to 60%. See where cost jumps, how the bottleneck moves, and who takes the margin.

A vendor-by-vendor benchmark of published 800G product specs, covering QSFP-DD vs OSFP share, copper cable reach vs AWG, SR8/AOC technology choices and optical module power consumption.

How Broadcom's PHY lineup bridges switch silicon and optics: from 16:16 retimers and 400G 8:4 gearboxes in the 50G PAM-4 era to 800G 8:8 PHYs like the BCM8780x that pair Tomahawk 4-100G with proven 100G-per-lambda optics.

AAOI posted a fifth straight record-revenue quarter and returned to profit, but the real story is that near-term revenue is capped by capacity and DSP/TIA supply, not demand. 800G is just igniting, 1.6T ships next quarter, and in-house lasers let AAOI sidestep the industry's worst bottleneck.