August 17, 2026 -
By Neil Tyler, newelectronics.co.uk
A group of technology and infrastructure companies has formally launched the Open Silicon Photonics for AI Systems initiative as a new workstream within the Open Compute Project (OCP), aiming to develop open standards for the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
The initiative, led by Lightmatter, brings together an expanded coalition comprising 19 companies, including founding and new members such as Celestica, Dell Technologies, Flex, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, Global Unichip, Hyve Solutions, Keysight, Qualcomm and Quanta Cloud Technology.
As part of the launch, the group has released its first white paper, Architecture Vision: Open Silicon Photonics for AI Systems. The document outlines a shared architectural framework for co-packaged optics (CPO), intended to support the growth of AI clusters from 72 nodes to more than 1,024 nodes while maintaining interoperability between equipment from different vendors.