AI Datacentre the size of a city?

Now that the dust has settled after OFC here are some of our thoughts and take-aways:

Co-packaged Optics Breaks Through

In the lead-up to OFC 2025, the tone was set at Nvidia GTC when CEO Jensen Huang heralded their co-packaged optics  (CPO) solution for scale out networking, announcing:

"AI factories are a new class of data centers with extreme scale, and networking infrastructure must be reinvented to keep pace. By integrating silicon photonics directly into switches, NVIDIA is shattering the old limitations of hyperscale and enterprise networks...".

Although Broadcom, Ranovus and others had been making superb progress on CPO for several years, the Nvidia-factor brought it mainstream and created a notable buzz and hype around OFC. It was the largest OFC in more than 20 years with talk of renewed interest from investors and an increase in attendance. 

There certainly seemed to be a greater footfall, although it's unclear whether the huge crowds and 90 minute queues on the opening morning were due to sheer numbers, or whether they were the result (ironically) of internet connectivity and technology issues! 

City Scale AI Datacentres

At the Optica Executive Forum the keynote speaker from Google, Amin Vahdat, gave a fascinating talk about the past, present and future of AI networking. There was a 'shivers down the spine' moment as he likened it to being present at the dawn of the internet and the launch of the first browser sitting on the world wide web. It is, without doubt, exciting and exhilarating, and it is a privilege to be contributing in some small way to this revolution.

We heard about Meta's plan for a 2 gigawatt AI Factory that would cover the same area as much of Manhattan! And this is just one such project. Whilst AI developments are incontrovertibly moving forward at pace, and offer huge potential, could there be parallels with the bubble 25 years ago when the 'new era' of the world wide web resulted in overbuild of infrastructure coupled with over-inflated valuations? While we're not there yet, a little bit of caution does seem warranted. 

Key Highlights from Pilot Photonics’ OFC 2025: 

• We announced imminent customer sampling of our nano-iTLA lasers for pluggable coherent transceivers and other applications, and we heard very encouraging market estimates and forecasts in terms of value and port-counts. 
  
  
• We launched our new CW-WDM O-band laser array development, which is a core part of ExCELS - our comb-enhanced external laser source, along with a test instrument to support R&D in this domain. At the Sunday workshop, Lightcounting presented a chart estimating the market growth of co-packaged optical switches, which require this type of external laser source, to be estimated at an intoxicating 10x per annum for the next 3 years.
  
  
• Our partner BiFrost Communications’ quasi-coherent transceiver prototype, incorporating Pilot Photonics' tunable lasers in chip form-factor,  was also demonstrated at the show and exhibited on both the Sanmina and Semtech booths.
  
  

  	Lightcounting projections estimate 10x per annum growth in co-packaged optical switches, which require an external laser source, for the next 3 years		Pilot Photonics' tunable laser in chip form-factor incorporated into BiFrost Communications’ quasi-coherent transceiver prototype

Overall it was an OFC buzzing with anticipation and excitement: let’s keep the momentum going. 💡