One of the biggest themes at OCP 2026 was the remarkable level of optical innovation and announcements—activity historically more associated with OFC. In my observation, the number of sessions dedicated to optics nearly doubled compared with last year.
This shift goes beyond the conference agenda. As AI networks demand more bandwidth, denser connectivity and increasingly distributed architectures, optics and switching silicon are becoming more tightly intertwined. Six developments stood out.
1. Co-Packaged Optics Moves Closer to Commercial Deployment
Co-packaged optics (CPO) reached an important milestone as NVIDIA moved its Spectrum-X Ethernet Photonics switches into production, with early customer adoption and deployments beginning. Celestica reinforced that momentum with its DS6005, a liquid-cooled 102.4 Tbps Ethernet switch based on Broadcom’s Tomahawk 6–Davisson CPO platform. It offers 64 × 1.6 Tbps ports in a compact 1.5OU form factor, using co-packaged optical engines and field-replaceable external lasers.
Near-packaged optics (NPO) also deserves attention. In its rack-scale architecture announcement, Arista identified open CPO/NPO alongside XPO as next-generation optical approaches for increasing network-rack density, citing a path from 1.6 Pb/s with current OSFP-based designs to 6.5 Pb/s per rack. This is an architectural density outlook—not evidence that NPO is already shipping in volume.
2. Pluggable Optics Fight Back with Higher Bandwidth Density
Even as CPO gains momentum, pluggable optics are far from standing still. NVIDIA and Cisco introduced plans for Ultra-Dense Small Form Factor Pluggable (USFP), a proposed 400 Gb/s-per-lane design with a path to as much as 12.8 Tbps of aggregate module capacity.
The companies are targeting four times the bandwidth density and approximately 1.3 times the power efficiency of 200 Gb/s-per-lane pluggable designs. That could connect more endpoints without adding network tiers while retaining familiar deployment flexibility and field serviceability. The story is not simply CPO versus pluggables: adoption will reflect density, power, reach, reliability, operating model and economics.
The significance is that optical integration is progressing from component roadmaps to complete systems and rack-level design choices. Customer qualification, serviceability, production yields and meaningful shipment volumes remain the metrics to watch. Early commercialization should not be confused with broad adoption.
3. The 100T Switch Era Is Here—and the Transition to 1.6T Is Underway
The 102.4 Tbps generation is taking shape across multiple silicon and systems ecosystems. Broadcom’s Tomahawk 6 underpins Arista’s 7060XE7 portfolio, which supports dense 1.6 Tbps connectivity with air- and liquid-cooled options. Celestica’s Tomahawk 6-based DS6000 and DS6001 are available to order, while the DS6005 extends the family into CPO.
Cisco’s OCP 2026 update reported initial customer shipments of G300-powered 102.4T systems and introduced the 51.2T Silicon One G302, with 200G SerDes and 1.6T connectivity for top-of-rack applications; G302 shipments were planned for before year-end 2026. NVIDIA is also advancing Spectrum-6, including Meta’s announced adoption for next-generation AI infrastructure.
The direction is clear: 100T-class switching and 1.6T ports are becoming building blocks of AI fabrics. But market readiness differs across announcements, orders, customer sampling and shipments. The next question is when 1.6T moves into a sustained volume ramp.
4. Scale-Up Is No Longer Confined to the Rack
One of the most consequential architectural disclosures during OCP was Microsoft’s Maia 300 scale-up domain, described as connecting 12,288 accelerators across 128 racks. It combines electrical links within racks with optical inter-rack connectivity and custom transport for accelerator-to-accelerator communication. The implication is that scale-up can be defined by workload communication requirements, not simply physical rack boundaries.
Additional announcements reinforce the breadth of this shift. Arista’s Etherlink SU-144 proposes open, Ethernet-based scale-up for as many as 144 accelerators in a single-hop domain and up to 1,024 across racks. Celestica and AMD’s Helios collaboration focuses on scale-up switches using Ultra Accelerator Link over Ethernet (UALoE) for AMD’s rack-scale AI platform. These are distinct architectures and development stages, but both point to Ethernet moving deeper into accelerator interconnects.
Meta’s Tahan scale-up switch offers another concrete example: a 51.2T, Broadcom Tomahawk 5-based Ethernet switch in the MTIA 300 system, using a lossless RoCE approach under FBOSS. Meta says Tahan is shipping and has outlined a future 72-accelerator-per-rack platform on 102.4T silicon, with a roadmap toward Ethernet for Scale-Up Networking (ESUN).
OpenAI and Broadcom’s Jalapeño announcement adds the accelerator-design perspective. Jalapeño is an inference-focused processor, not itself an Ethernet scale-up switch; nevertheless, its broader system platform incorporates Broadcom networking technologies, underscoring how chip architecture and fabric design are increasingly co-optimized.
Together, these developments challenge a hard rack boundary between scale-up and scale-out. They also create new opportunities for switching silicon, optics and open Ethernet fabrics, while raising questions around latency, transport semantics, congestion control and operational complexity.
5. Competition in Scale-Up Switching Silicon Is Heating Up
The emerging scale-up opportunity is drawing new suppliers and architectures. Upscale AI introduced its 115.2 Tbps SkyFabriX switching silicon as part of its standards-oriented Token Fabric portfolio. Astera Labs also unveiled its Orion rack-scale PCIe switching architecture, aimed at connecting multiple accelerators within a pod.
These announcements reinforce two trends: suppliers beyond incumbent networking-chip vendors are targeting the market, and no single interconnect is likely to fit every workload. Ethernet, PCIe, NVLink, UALink, and emerging open standards will be evaluated against bandwidth, latency, memory semantics, flexibility and cost. Scale-up is becoming a meaningful new battleground for silicon share.
6. Hyperscaler Customization and Open Networking Keep Advancing
Meta’s OCP 2026 networking disclosure illustrates a multi-vendor approach. Its IcePack liquid-cooled rack houses 102.4T IceCube scale-out switches offered in two silicon variants: Broadcom Tomahawk6C and NVIDIA Spectrum-6. Both use Meta’s FBOSS software and OCP Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI). NVIDIA separately detailed its Spectrum-6-based N-IceCube collaboration. Cisco Silicon One belongs in the broader open-switching competitive landscape at Meta, although Meta’s disclosed IceCube variants did not identify Cisco silicon. Arista’s earlier R4/HyperPort announcement provides another example of the scale-across dimension, although that product announcement preceded OCP 2026.
Cisco’s OCP announcement highlighted Silicon One deployments across hyperscale networks, including P200 systems in Microsoft and Alibaba environments. NVIDIA and Google also announced Falcon Transport support for future ConnectX-10 SuperNICs and BlueField DPUs, extending interoperability between transport software and networking hardware.
These examples show hyperscalers combining merchant silicon with their own software, protocols and system designs. Openness, multi sourcing and interoperability are strategic choices—not just implementation details—as AI factories grow larger and more specialized.
Looking Ahead
If one message emerged from OCP 2026, it is that AI networking is no longer simply about faster switches. Optics, switching silicon and network architecture are co-evolving. CPO is entering early commercialization; NPO and other optical integration paths are gaining visibility; pluggables are pushing density higher; 100T systems and 1.6T connectivity are taking shape; and Ethernet scale-up is extending from the rack into larger accelerator domains.
Optics is no longer a supporting technology at the edge of the switching conversation. It is becoming an essential enabler of how the industry scales the next generation of AI infrastructure.
We provide deeper analysis of vendor positioning, customer wins, hyperscaler architectural choices and market adoption timelines, in our Data Center Switch—AI Back-end Networks reports. To access the reports, please contact us at dgsales@delloro.com.
