The AI Boom Is Fueling a Need for Speed in Chip Networking

"As the tech industry funnels billions into AI data centers, chip makers both big and small are ramping up innovation around the technology that connects chips to other chips, and server racks to other server racks. Networking technology has been around since the dawn of the computer, critically connecting mainframes so they can share data. In the world of semiconductors, networking plays a part at almost every level of the stack-from the interconnect between transistors on the chip itself,"

"Optical technology, or photonics, is having a coming-of-age moment. The technology was considered "lame, expensive, and marginally useful," for 25 years until the AI boom reignited interest in it, according to PsiQuantum cofounder and chief scientific officer Pete Shadbolt. Some venture capitalists and institutional investors, hoping to catch the next wave of chip innovation or at least find a suitable acquisition target, are funneling billions into startups like these that have found new ways to speed up data throughput."

AI data center growth is driving major investment and innovation in networking technologies that connect chips and server racks. Networking exists across the semiconductor stack, from transistor-level interconnects to external rack connections. Established chip firms like Nvidia, Broadcom, and Marvell continue developing networking solutions while startups such as Lightmatter, Celestial AI, and PsiQuantum pursue optical approaches to accelerate data throughput. Photonics has regained momentum after decades of marginalization as investors pour billions into startups aiming to overcome bandwidth limits of electron-based interconnects. Many investors believe electron-based traditional interconnects cannot keep pace with increasingly demanding, high-bandwidth AI workloads.

Read at WIRED