Tech Giants Unite to Revolutionize AI Data Centre Connectivity

A new industry group has formed to reshape data centre connectivity for AI workloads. The Optical Scale-up Consortium, backed by major tech firms, aims to develop open standards for high-speed optical connections. Its goal is to improve performance, cut costs, and simplify how AI systems communicate at scale.

The initiative follows earlier moves in the sector, including Mesh Optical's $50 million funding round and Marvell Technology's billion-dollar push into optical AI infrastructure.

The consortium was launched by AMD, Broadcom, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI. Their focus is on creating open specifications for AI infrastructure, moving away from closed, proprietary designs. The group's foundation rests on the Optical Compute Interconnect Multi-Source Agreement (OCI MSA), which sets out a shared framework for interoperability.

OCI's approach shifts connectivity from traditional module-based systems to a silicon-centric model. This change allows tighter integration between optics, compute chips, and networking hardware. The design uses non-return-to-zero (NRZ) modulation and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) to balance speed, latency, and efficiency. The first generation of OCI supports 200 Gbps per direction, using four lanes of 50 Gbps NRZ. The second generation doubles this to 400 Gbps with bidirectional (BiDi) technology. Future roadmaps target even higher speeds, reaching 3.2 terabits per second (Tbps) per fibre and beyond. The group also backs multiple form factors, including pluggable, co-packaged, and integrated optics (CPO), to ensure flexibility across different systems. Before this consortium, other players had already entered the space. Mesh Optical, founded by three SpaceX veterans, raised $50 million to build optical high-performance connections for AI data centres. Meanwhile, Marvell Technology acquired Celestial AI for $1 billion and developed PCIe 8.0 solutions aimed at hyperscale environments. These efforts highlight the growing demand for faster, more efficient optical links in AI infrastructure. The OCI MSA's long-term vision is a 'plug-and-play' ecosystem where components from different vendors work seamlessly together. This open model contrasts with today's fragmented market, where proprietary interfaces often create compatibility barriers. By standardising optical interfaces, the consortium hopes to accelerate deployment and reduce overheads for AI operators.

The Optical Scale-up Consortium's work will define how next-generation AI systems connect and scale. Its open specifications and interoperable designs are set to lower barriers for adoption across the industry. With major tech firms and startups already investing heavily, the shift toward silicon-centric optical networking appears inevitable.

The group's roadmap extends beyond current speeds, targeting multi-terabit capacities in the coming years. If successful, these standards could become the backbone of AI data centre infrastructure worldwide.