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Nvidia Deploys $6.5B Into Photonics Push to Unlock AI Infrastructure Scaling

Nvidia is directing at least $6.5 billion toward photonics developers as the company works to overcome a critical constraint on artificial intelligence deployment: energy consumption in data transfer.

Since March, the semiconductor manufacturer has committed $2 billion total to Lumentum, Coherent, and Marvell for photonics technology development. The company also pledged $500 million to Corning for optical connectivity solutions and participated in optics startup Ayer Labs' $500 million Series E funding round.

Photonics technology uses light rather than electrical current to transmit data between processors, memory systems, and data centers—a more efficient alternative to traditional copper-based connectivity. Electrical data transfer generates substantial energy costs that have emerged as a major impediment to broader AI infrastructure rollout.

"The amount of silicon photonics technology capacity that we need is substantially higher than the world has today," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at GTC in March.