AI data center builders keep hitting the same wall: the optical layer cannot scale with the compute around it. A new $3.4M program pairs Sivers Semiconductors with SemiNex to attack that bottleneck with indium phosphide components.
Three product families are in scope. External laser sources with high output power target co-packaged optics, where the light engine moves inside the package. Distributed feedback laser arrays with many channels handle wavelength-multiplexed connections. Semiconductor optical amplifiers extend reach as link counts multiply.
The physics is shifting as optics migrate off faceplates and into packages. What used to be a board-level concern becomes a die-level one, and efficiency per watt of light, thermal stability, and power per channel start to decide whether a system scales at all.
Both executives frame the problem in urgent terms. Sivers chief executive Vickram Vathulya calls advanced light sources as indispensable to AI factories as the chips and photonic engines around them, and SemiNex chairman Ronald Moore argues the optical layer now caps how far AI infrastructure can grow, with today’s devices unable to be pushed harder to change it.
SemiNex’s contribution includes high-power InP laser diodes, DFB lasers, SOAs, and external cavity lasers. Sivers brings photonics and wireless products used in AI data centers, satellite communications, defense, and telecom. Sampling and initial production ramps begin in the second half of 2027.
