Openspecification and ecosystem collaboration aims to facilitate AI infrastructuretransition to integrated optics for hyperscalersMountainView, Calif. – March 16, 2026 – Lightmatter, today announced a new collaborativeinitiative within the Open Compute Project (OCP) to create open specificationsfor a shared reference architecture enabling interoperable Co-Packaged Optics(CPO) in next-generation AI systems. The announcement, in conjunction with thesubmission of a white paper titled "Open Collaboration for CPO-Enabled AISystems," will initiate the project. This proposal underscoresLightmatter’s commitment to advancing AI infrastructure in open collaborationwith ecosystem leaders, including Celestica, Corning Incorporated, DellTechnologies, Inc., Flex, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, Hyve Solutions,Keysight, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and Quanta Cloud Technology. Theexponential increase in AI workloads has exposed a critical bottleneck inelectrical interconnects, which is now driving the industry toward CPOsolutions to scale next-generation AI infrastructure. CPO offers a solution byintegrating photonics directly with silicon, providing massive increases inbandwidth that contribute to large gains in compute, power and spaceefficiency. However, the complexity of CPO systems presents challenges aroundintegration, interoperability, reliability and scaling across a diverse supplychain. This project directly addresses the need for collaborative openstandards that will enable a robust ecosystem, high-volume production andseamless integration of CPO in hyperscale data centers. "TheAI revolution is at a pivotal moment, and we must ensure interoperablesolutions that can be produced and deployed at scale across the industry’sdiverse ecosystem," said Nick Harris, Ph.D., Founder and CEO atLightmatter. "We believe the answer is in open collaboration. By workingwith the OCP community, we can define the standards that will unlock the fullpotential of CPO, enabling a vibrant ecosystem across the hyperscaler supplychain. We are already seeing strong support from industry leaders who recognizethe urgency of this effort." Thiscollaboration proposes to bring together AI system architects, advancedmanufacturing partners, and networking leaders to align on a shared vision androadmap for CPO. The goal is to develop open standards for components andsystems and to establish a framework for interoperability testing andcertification. AnalystPerspective from Dell’Oro : "The rapid growth of AI workloads is creating immense pressureon the entire data center stack, with the interconnect fabric emerging as amajor bottleneck," said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President, Market Researchat Dell'Oro Group. "The industry has longrecognized the critical role of Co-Packaged Optics in addressing power, performance,and density challenges. An open, collaborative initiative like the one proposedby Lightmatter is crucial to bridging the technological and supply chain gapsthat have hindered widespread adoption, accelerating the path tonext-generation AI infrastructure." Thisinitiative is already generating significant interest and support among leadingecosystem vendors and experts who recognize the importance of open,interoperable CPO-enabled AI infrastructure: Celestica: "Celestica is a long-standingparticipant in the OCP community, we support industry collaboration to advanceopen networking and hardware solutions," said Randy Clark, VP, SystemDesign Engineering, Celestica. "Industry efforts exploring areas such asopen standards for co-packaged optics contribute to the ongoing work supportingthe next generation of high-performance, open AI infrastructure." CorningIncorporated:“Co-Packaged Optics represents a fundamental shift in how optical connectivityis designed, manufactured, and deployed for large-scale AI systems,” saidBenoit Fleury, Photonics Connectivity Solutions Commercial Director at CorningOptical Communications. “Successfully deploying CPO at scale will require tightintegration of photonic materials, optical fibers, high-density connectivity,advanced packaging, and system-level design, all delivered with the performanceand reliability that hyperscalers demand. Corning supports this OCP initiativeto define open-reference architectures and specifications that enable broadinteroperability and manufacturability across the ecosystem as it transitionsfrom pluggable to integrated optics for next-generation AI infrastructures.” Flex:"Deliveringnext-generation AI infrastructure requires a resilient, transparent supplychain and strong industry collaboration,” said Rob Campbell, President,Communications, Enterprise and Cloud at Flex. “As a longstanding contributor tothe Open Compute Project, Flex is dedicated to advancing open standards thatstrengthen the data center ecosystem. Supporting this initiative builds on ourclose collaboration with customers on CPO, accelerating interoperability andcertification frameworks that are essential to the widespread deployment ofCPO-based systems globally.” FoxconnInterconnect Technology, LTD: "As a leading provider of advanced IT infrastructure forGPU-accelerated computing, Foxconn understands the immense pressure on datacenter interconnects," said Joseph Wang, CTO at Foxconn InterconnectTechnology. "The lack of standardization in Co-Packaged Optics is asignificant hurdle for widespread adoption. We believe that by joining this OCPinitiative, we can help define a common framework that will accelerate thedevelopment and deployment of CPO solutions, enabling our customers to buildmore powerful and efficient AI systems." HyveSolutions: "Asexponential increases in AI training and inference workloads push up againstexisting interconnect limits, Co-Packaged Optics presents an opportunity for amore efficient and unified scale-up and scale-out network architecture,” saidWinnie Lin, VP of Engineering at Hyve Solutions. “By contributing to this OCPreference architecture, we are helping to build an interoperable framework thatenables hyperscalers to deploy more scalable, energy-efficient compute clusterswith the performance and density required to drive the next wave of AI modelinnovation." Keysight:"As AIworkloads push the boundaries of data center infrastructure, the industryrequires aligned approaches to ensureseamless interoperability and performance at scale,”said Dr. Joachim Peerlings, Vice President and General Manager atKeysight's Networks and Data Center Group. “Keysight is proud to support OCP's AI Infrastructure Standards initiative, bringing our deepexpertise in high-speed electrical and optical validation and emulation to thiscollaborative ecosystem. By establishing robust, open standards fornext-generation interconnects, we are helping innovators mitigate risk andaccelerate the path from CPO design to optically connected zettascalecomputing." QualcommTechnologies: “AsQualcomm Technologies continues to scale its high-performance, power-efficientcompute architecture from the edge into the hyperscale data center, the needfor a collaborative and open interconnect framework has never been greater,”said Tony Chan Carusone, Technology Executive, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. andFormer CTO of Alphawave Semi, a Qualcomm company. “A shared referencearchitecture for Co-Packaged Optics is essential for fostering a diverseecosystem that can deliver the interoperability and scalability required forthe next generation of AI infrastructure.” Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT): "QCT is committed toproviding powerful and efficient open infrastructure for AI-enabled datacenters," said Mike Yang, President of QCT. "We are pleased tosupport this collaborative initiative to standardize Co-Packaged Optics, whichwill accelerate the development of more powerful, scalable, and efficientsolutions for our customers and the broader AI community." Lightmatterinvites other industry leaders and system architects to join the initiative andhelp shape the future of AI interconnects. We are prepared to contribute ourexpertise and actively engage with standards bodies–including the OIF, IEEE,and OCP–and with MSAs, including XPO and OIP, to accelerate the adoption ofthis transformative technology. To learnmore or to join this Open Collaboration for CPO-Enabled AI Systems project,please contact our team at ecosystem@lightmatter.co. Lightmatter®is leading a revolution in AI data center infrastructure, enabling the nextgiant leaps in human progress. The company’s groundbreaking Passage™platform—the world’s first 3D-stacked silicon photonics engine—and Guide®—theindustry's first VLSP™ light engine—connect thousands to millions ofprocessors. Designed to eliminate critical data bottlenecks, Lightmatter’stechnology delivers unprecedented bandwidth density and energy efficiency forthe most advanced AI and high-performance computing workloads, fundamentallyredefining the architecture of next-generation AI infrastructure. Visit www.lightmatter.co to learn more. Lightmatter, Passage, Guide andVLSP are trademarks of Lightmatter, Inc. Any other trademarks or registeredtrademarks mentioned in this release are the property of their respectiveowners.
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