Nvidia Says CPO Switches Are in Full Production. Is the Silicon Photonics Era Here?
Nvidia announced early Aug. 14, Beijing time, that its Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics switch system has entered full production. The system reduces the number of lasers by fourfold, cuts power consumption fivefold and increases mean time between failures (MTBI) tenfold. The switch system was jointly developed by Hon Hai, which handles switch-system assembly; Lumentum, which manufactures the laser chips; Siliconware Precision Industries, which handles wafer-level and chip-level packaging and testing; TFC Communication, which assembles laser-module subcomponents; and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which manufactures the system using advanced silicon photonics processes. Built on the next-generation Spectrum-6 switching chip and using co-packaged optics, Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics has been described by Nvidia as “the world’s first 200G/lane CPO Ethernet switch system to enter volume production.” CoreWeave, Lambda and Oracle are among the first customers to adopt or introduce the product. It entered production from May through July 2026 and has now moved into full production. Beyond the performance and hardware improvements highlighted by Nvidia, Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics directly integrates CPO with the ASIC. Nvidia says this breaks through the limitations of electrical signaling in large-scale AI factories and raises bandwidth per switching chip to 102.4 Tb/s, double the 51.2 Tb/s provided by the Blackwell-generation Spectrum-4. Compared with network architectures based on traditional pluggable transceivers, the combination of integrated silicon photonics and external laser arrays reduces the number of components and potential failure points. It also cuts optical loss from approximately 22 dB to approximately 4 dB and improves signal integrity 64-fold. China Galaxy Securities said that as GPU clusters expand, communication pressure inside data centers continues to rise, making optical interconnects an important development direction. The brokerage said the volume production of Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics for Vera Rubin further validates the value of optical interconnects in next-generation AI data centers. It added that rising silicon photonics adoption should also drive rapid growth in demand for upstream optical chips. Several major Chinese A-share optical-chip companies, including Yuanjie Technology, Sijia Photonics and Focuslight Technologies, recently announced capacity expansions, private placements or investments in new projects. Brokerages said optical-communications expansion has moved from the planning stage into actual capital spending and that the optical industry’s business cycle continues to strengthen. As AI-computing infrastructure, data-center interconnection, silicon photonics and CPO applications develop rapidly, optical-interconnect technology is undergoing frequent incremental changes. Overall, companies with upstream chip research and development capabilities may gain excess profits in the new cycle, and their profitability may continue to improve.
The switch system was jointly developed by Hon Hai, which handles switch-system assembly; Lumentum, which manufactures the laser chips; Siliconware Precision Industries, which handles wafer-level and chip-level packaging and testing; TFC Communication, which assembles laser-module subcomponents; and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which manufactures the system using advanced silicon photonics processes.
Built on the next-generation Spectrum-6 switching chip and using co-packaged optics, Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics has been described by Nvidia as “the world’s first 200G/lane CPO Ethernet switch system to enter volume production.”
CoreWeave, Lambda and Oracle are among the first customers to adopt or introduce the product. It entered production from May through July 2026 and has now moved into full production.
Beyond the performance and hardware improvements highlighted by Nvidia, Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics directly integrates CPO with the ASIC. Nvidia says this breaks through the limitations of electrical signaling in large-scale AI factories and raises bandwidth per switching chip to 102.4 Tb/s, double the 51.2 Tb/s provided by the Blackwell-generation Spectrum-4.
Compared with network architectures based on traditional pluggable transceivers, the combination of integrated silicon photonics and external laser arrays reduces the number of components and potential failure points. It also cuts optical loss from approximately 22 dB to approximately 4 dB and improves signal integrity 64-fold.
China Galaxy Securities said that as GPU clusters expand, communication pressure inside data centers continues to rise, making optical interconnects an important development direction. The brokerage said the volume production of Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics for Vera Rubin further validates the value of optical interconnects in next-generation AI data centers. It added that rising silicon photonics adoption should also drive rapid growth in demand for upstream optical chips.
Several major Chinese A-share optical-chip companies, including Yuanjie Technology, Sijia Photonics and Focuslight Technologies, recently announced capacity expansions, private placements or investments in new projects.
Brokerages said optical-communications expansion has moved from the planning stage into actual capital spending and that the optical industry’s business cycle continues to strengthen. As AI-computing infrastructure, data-center interconnection, silicon photonics and CPO applications develop rapidly, optical-interconnect technology is undergoing frequent incremental changes. Overall, companies with upstream chip research and development capabilities may gain excess profits in the new cycle, and their profitability may continue to improve.