Significant Y/Y Progress with No Significant Delays in 800 Gbps, 1.6 Tbps, and 200 Gbps SERDES
Once again, OFC 2025 was a great show held in San Francisco this year. We saw more exhibitors and people on the show floor, looking at the prize for AI/ML spending. Vendors focused on the new opportunities of AI/ML scaleup (Ethernet, NVLink, PCIe, and UALink) and scaleout (Ethernet and InfiniBand) networks and the need for significant bandwidth. There were no surprise announcements at this year’s show.
We saw significant progress on 800 Gbps and the 200 Gbps SERDES to support 1.6 Tbps. On the 800 Gbps front, many vendors progressed from new product announcements in 2024 to substantial shipments in 2025. There was also significant progress on the 200 Gbps SERDES, with many technical demos in just one year.
The overall theme of the show was Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), with many vendors showcasing products. We expect scaleup to be the more important market in the long term.
We also saw significant copper announcements at the show. The amount of copper in AI/ML racks is increasing. While we often think of interconnect as switch-to-switch, more new AI/ML racks have kilometers of copper cabling inside the rack.
The overall pace of innovation increased as hyperscalers required tomorrow’s technology as soon as it was available. We expect various vendor announcements through the summer of 2025 to help solidify the hyperscalers 2026 plans.
We look forward to the next OFC and we will see you in Los Angeles next year.