Microsoft Lobbies White House Against Optical Component Ban

Microsoft and other companies and groups are pressuring the US administration to not to implement a planned ban on imports of Chinese-made optical transceivers, arguing that doing so could weaken the US in the AI race against China, Reuters reported.

The Windows maker, which is building dozens of data centres, was one of a handful of companies that met with officials from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Council in September to voice concerns about the ban and its potential effect on data centre supply chains, the report said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Data centre rollout

Optical transceivers link data centre components at high speed, with Chinese companies controlling two-thirds of the global market for the components, according to Counterpoint Research.

US-based Coherent and Lumentum make competing technology, but don’t manufacture at the same scale as…