Nvidia has committed at least US$6.5 billion over the past three months to photonics-related companies including Lumentum, Coherent, Marvell, Corning, and Ayar Labs, as it looks to ease bandwidth and power constraints in AI infrastructure.

Public filings and company disclosures indicate these commitments may include purchase and capacity agreements with suppliers, not just equity investments.

Nvidia has disclosed billions of dollars in non-cancelable supplier commitments.

Its Lumentum deal includes a multibillion-dollar purchase commitment and capacity access rights.

Nvidia announced in March 2025 Quantum-X and Spectrum-X photonics switches for InfiniBand and Ethernet AI data-center networks, not GPU-to-GPU links.

The company also said co-packaged optics can cut interface power consumption from about 30W to as low as 9W, a 3.5x efficiency gain over earlier designs.

Analysts and researchers said mass adoption is still constrained by packaging yield, thermals, fiber handling, and serviceability, with wider rollout expected from around 2028.

🔗 Source: CNBC

Recent Nvidia developments