Nvidia's Spending $4 Billion on Photonics to Stay Ahead of the Curve in AI

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Nvidia's Spending $4 Billion on Photonics to Stay Ahead of the Curve in AI

TL;DR

  • Nvidia is investing $2 billion in Lumentum and $2 billion in Coherent.
  • The investment targets photonics technology, including optical transceivers, circuit switches, and lasers.
  • This technology is crucial for connecting GPUs within AI data centers.
  • The goal is to enhance energy efficiency, data transfer speeds, and bandwidth.
  • The deals involve multi-billion dollar purchase commitments and future capacity access rights.
  • The growth of agentic AI increases bandwidth demands in data centers.
  • Photonics offers higher bandwidth, lower latency, and less power consumption than copper cables.
  • DARPA is also researching improvements in photonic computing for AI applications.
  • Rival AMD acquired silicon photonics startup Enosemi last year.