Silicon photonics interconnects are hitting an inflection point. At OFC 2026, GlobalFoundries showed how detachable connectors and 3D packaging tackle the 100+ fiber assembly challenge in AI inference, while building a complete US-based optical packaging ecosystem.

CPO's real bottleneck isn't bandwidth; it's whether a fiber can be detached and reattached. SENKO's elastic averaging gets repeatability under 0.15 dB and interchangeability under 0.5 dB, unlocking CPO serviceability. Module-level attach and customers remain open: technically validated, not yet in volume.

CPO decks spend 90% of their time on EIC-PIC stacking, but the first question in data center ops is: can you replace the fiber? Four companies, four approaches and three optical interfaces are competing, and whoever ships first may set the de facto standard.