""I can see a point in time in the future when it matters as the only way to do it," Tan responded, before saying, "We are not quite there yet.""
""The final, final, straw is when you can't do it well in pluggable optics," Tan said. "Then you go to silicon photonics.""
""It will happen and we are ready for it, but not anytime soon," he said, adding that Broadcom's already doing the R&D needed so it is ready to satisfy demand."
Silicon photonics is considered inevitable for datacenter networking but not imminent. Two innovation waves must play out first: scaling copper-based interconnects for rack-scale systems and the maturation of pluggable optics that combine electronic and photonic devices. Silicon photonics becomes necessary when pluggable optics can no longer meet performance or scalability requirements. Broadcom is conducting R&D to be prepared for eventual demand while prioritizing delivery of AI hardware to fulfill a $73 billion backlog, including more than $50 billion in custom AI accelerators (XPUs). Customers view custom accelerators as multi-year investments that simplify software stacks and create sticky demand.
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