Tower Semiconductor and Marvell Technology have shipped more than five million coherent photonic integrated circuits designed for AI data center interconnects. The milestone, announced on June 18, represents a tangible shift from copper-based interconnects to light-based data transmission inside the facilities that power large language models.
Tower isn’t just shipping chips. It’s signing checks: $1.3 billion in silicon photonics contracts for 2027, backed by roughly $290 million in customer prepayments.
Why light beats copper, and why it matters now
Silicon photonics integrates optical components directly onto silicon wafers, enabling data to move at the speed of light rather than through metal wires, with a significantly reduced energy footprint. Tower’s latest solutions reportedly deliver up to double the data rate of prior platforms while consuming less power.
The company’s PH18 platform serves as the foundational technology enabling volume production of these photonic circuits, functioning as what Tower calls a “global open silicon photonics platform,” meaning multiple partners can build on top of it rather than developing proprietary solutions from scratch.
