Nvidia Hits Full Production Milestone for Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics Switches

Nvidia has reached full production of its Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics switches, marking an important milestone for co-packaged optics (CPO). CPO places silicon photonic engines directly next to the switch ASIC, dramatically shortening electrical signal paths and improving power efficiency and reliability in AI clusters. The platform is designed for scale-out and scale-across networking in Vera Rubin era AI factories.

Nvidia's Spectrum-X uses 4x fewer lasers, cuts power consumption by 5x, and delivers a 10x improvement in mean time between incidents. The company has already named CoreWeave, Lambda, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as ecosystem partners and adopters of the technology.

The production disclosure provides an unusually clear view of the supply chain, with Taiwan Semiconductor handling silicon photonics fabrication, ASE Technology's subsidiary SPIL performing chip-scale packaging and testing for CPO assembly, and Lumentum manufacturing laser chips. Nvidia has invested $2 billion in Lumentum this year and signed a multiyear agreement that includes a multibillion-dollar purchase commitment for advanced laser components.

Other US-listed optical stocks with exposure to the CPO market include Coherent, Fabrinet, Corning, Broadcom, and Marvell Technology. Coherent is an ELS assembly partner of Nvidia's, while Broadcom has its own mature CPO roadmap. Marvell Technology is building its position through silicon photonics, optical DSPs, and its acquisition of Celestial AI.