Lightmatter가 Open Compute Project 내에서 CPO(Chiplet Photonics Optical) 아키텍처 이니셔티브를 출범하여 AI 클러스터의 광학 인터커넥트 표준화를 추진했다.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 14, 2026 — Lightmatter has announced the launch of the Open Silicon Photonics for AI Systems initiative as an official workstream within the Open Compute Project (OCP). The expanded coalition now includes ten founding members and nine new participants, comprising Celestica, Dell Technologies, Flex, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, Global Unichip Corporation, Hyve Solutions, Keysight, Lightmatter, Qualcomm, Quanta Cloud Technology, and others.

First announced earlier this year, the initiative has published its foundational white paper, “Architecture Vision: Open Silicon Photonics for AI Systems.” The document will guide the development of a shared co-packaged optics (CPO) blueprint designed to scale Modular Hardware System (MHS)- and Open Rack v3 (ORv3)-compliant AI clusters from 72 to over 1,024 nodes. The architecture aims to ensure multi-vendor interoperability while significantly increasing compute cluster utilization.

**Redefining Rack Economics for the Photonic Era**

Data center physics have reached a breaking point. As scale-up domains expand across multiple racks, SerDes rates are approaching 448G, reducing copper’s effective reach to tens of centimeters and necessitating a shift to all-optical fabrics. The OCP reference architecture provides hyperscalers with a shared framework to execute this transition in a manner that remains scalable and interoperable across multiple SerDes generations, switch designs, and XPU development cycles. Furthermore, the architecture’s technology-agnostic approach supports diverse photonic solutions—including silicon photonics, VCSELs, and micro-LEDs—fostering a resilient, multi-vendor supply chain capable of meeting the performance and power requirements of 100,000-XPU clusters.

“Interconnect has become as fundamental to AI infrastructure performance as compute,” said Nick Harris, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Lightmatter. “The industry’s shift to silicon photonics will unlock the next major leap in frontier model capabilities. Aligning 19 companies on a system-level architectural vision was an enormous undertaking, and I’m proud of what this coalition has accomplished. This white paper lays the foundation upon which this growing OCP community will develop a shared MHS-based CPO rack architecture that fits into hyperscalers’ build flows. The work begins now.”

“As scaling demands accelerate, optimizing energy efficiency and data transfer speeds across AI systems is now just as critical as raw processing power,” said Jeff Janukowicz, Vice President, Global Lead for Compute Infrastructure and Technologies at IDC. “The physical limitations of copper are increasingly constraining system scalability and accelerator utilization in large-scale AI clusters, and that gap widens with each new generation of AI accelerators. The Open Silicon Photonics for AI Systems initiative establishes a vendor-neutral framework that can accelerate ecosystem collaboration and help move co-packaged optics from early deployments toward mainstream AI infrastructure.”

The next phase of the formal process involves the submission of the first specifications, anticipated in Q4 2026.

To learn more or to join the Open Collaboration for CPO-Enabled AI Systems project, please contact [email protected].

For additional coverage, see HPCwire: Lightmatter Proposes OCP Reference Architecture for Co-Packaged Optics in AI Systems.

**About Lightmatter**

Lightmatter is leading a revolution in AI data center infrastructure, enabling the next giant leaps in human progress. The company’s Passage platform—the world’s first 3D-stacked silicon photonics engine—and Guide, the industry’s first VLSP light engine, connect thousands to millions of processors. Designed to eliminate critical data bottlenecks, Lightmatter’s technology delivers unprecedented bandwidth density and energy efficiency for advanced AI and high-performance computing workloads, fundamentally redefining the architecture of next-generation AI infrastructure. Visit www.lightmatter.co to learn more.

**About the Open Compute Project Foundation**

The Open Compute Project (OCP) brings at-scale innovations and hyperscaler best practices to all, spanning technology domains from the data center to the edge, and covering the full stack from silicon to systems, site facilities, and services. The international OCP Community consists of organizations and professionals from hyperscale, neocloud, and cloud data center operators, communications providers, colocation providers, diverse enterprises, and technology vendors. Guided by the OCP Tenets of Openness, Impact, Efficiency, Scale, and Sustainability, the OCP Foundation engages with industry ecosystems and its growing membership while educating thousands of engineers and industry leaders annually. Across numerous projects and initiatives, the OCP Foundation and its Community are addressing today’s AI data center market evolution and shaping its future. Learn more at www.opencompute.org.