Nvidia’s spending $4 billion on photonics to stay ahead of the curve in AI
Nvidia is investing $4 billion in photonics companies Lumentum and Coherent to enhance data center technology for future AI needs.Summary
Nvidia announced a $4 billion investment, splitting $2 billion each between Lumentum and Coherent, both of which develop photonics technology crucial for data centers, such as optical transceivers and lasers. This technology is intended to improve energy efficiency, data transfer speeds, and bandwidth in upcoming AI data centers, building upon Nvidia's previous integration of Mellanox technology. The deals involve multiyear purchase commitments and access rights for advanced laser and optical networking products, supporting R&D and manufacturing expansion. The increasing bandwidth demands driven by agentic AI applications necessitate solutions like photonics, which offer higher bandwidth and lower latency than copper cables with reduced power consumption. Nvidia is not alone in this focus, as DARPA is soliciting photonic computing research, and rival AMD also acquired a silicon photonics startup last year.
(Source：The Verge)