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Marvell and Lumentum demonstrate optical circuit switching for next-generation AI infrastructure
Monday, March 16, 2026 at 09:08 PM
Marvell and Lumentum are collaborating to showcase optical circuit switching technology designed for future AI infrastructure. This partnership aims to enhance data center connectivity for large-scale AI cluster scaling.
Context
On March 16, 2026, Marvell Technology and Lumentum announced a joint demonstration of an integrated, rack-level Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) system at the OFC 2026 conference. The collaboration pairs Marvell’s Aquila 1.6T coherent-lite and Ara 1.6T PAM4 optical DSPs with Lumentum’s R300 OCS platform. By enabling direct optical paths between endpoints, the solution eliminates the need for power-hungry optical-electrical-optical conversions, targeting the ultra-low latency requirements of hyperscale AI data center fabrics.
This development comes as the OCS market is forecast to reach $2.5 billion by 2029, driven by the transition from proprietary internal systems to commercial hardware. Lumentum has previously signaled it expects OCS-related revenue to reach $100 million per quarter by the end of 2026. As AI clusters scale toward 100,000+ GPUs, this interoperability between silicon and photonics leaders is critical for reducing the energy footprint and complexity of next-generation infrastructure.
Sources (4)
Marvell and Lumentum to Demonstrate Optical Circuit Switching for Next-generation AI Scale-up Infrastructure | Marvell Technology, Inc. (MRVL)Marvell and Lumentum to Demonstrate Optical Circuit Switching for Next-generation AI Scale-up InfrastructureOptical Circuit Switches in AI Hyperscale Data Centers – The MEMS Advantage | LumentumAI drives OCS market forecast to surge to $2.5bn | Fibre Systems
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