AI data center optical interconnect market to hit $144 billion by 2030, an over ten-fold increase from 2024 figures, according to new projections — silicon photonics expected to account for nearly two-thirds of revenue, driven by co-packaged optics
- ID
- 14774
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 17 Aug 2026, 7:20 PM
- Fetched
- 17 Aug 2026, 8:47 PM
- Provider
- Tom's Hardware
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/photonics/ai-data-center-optical-interconnect-market-to-hit-usd144-billion-by-2030-an-over-ten-fold-increase-from-2024-figures-according-to-new-projections-silicon-photonics-expected-to-account-for-nearly-two-thirds-of-revenue-driven-by-co-packaged-optics
- Source URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/feeds/all
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 17 Aug 2026, 8:48 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai_ml_learnerssaas_founders
What happened
A China Insights Consultancy report, commissioned by laser-chip maker Yuanjie Semiconductors for its Hong Kong IPO filing, projects the AI data center optical interconnect market to grow from $13.7 billion in 2024 to $144.4 billion by 2030 (48.1% CAGR). Silicon photonics is expected to capture 63.7% of that revenue, driven by co-packaged optics, while 400 Gbps chip demand flatlines as 1.6 Tbps becomes standard.
Why it matters
For SaaS founders and AI/ML builders, this signals that data center networking costs and architectures are shifting toward silicon photonics and 1.6 Tbps interconnects over the next few years — relevant if you're planning GPU cluster capacity, evaluating cloud providers, or building products that assume current interconnect pricing. However, this is a vendor-commissioned forecast tied to an IPO filing, so treat the growth figures with appropriate skepticism.
Discussion angle
How much of this 10x projection is real demand signal versus IPO-friendly optimism, and what does the shift to 1.6 Tbps / co-packaged optics mean for cloud pricing and AI workload economics in Southeast Asia specifically?