Microsoft Targets MicroLED to Halve Data Center Networking Power

As AI growth pushes data center networks toward power and scaling limits, Microsoft researchers in Cambridge, UK, are testing MicroLED-based optical links that distribute data across thousands of parallel paths using imaging fiber. The company says the design can deliver bandwidth with roughly 50% lower interconnect power and lower costs by using commodity components.

Microsoft is aiming to commercialize the technology with partners as early as 2027. The push comes as existing interconnects – copper and laser-based optics – near practical limits in distance, density, energy efficiency, and thermal tolerance, making networking power budgets a top constraint on AI cluster design.

A Shift from ‘Narrow and Fast’ to ‘Wide and Slow’

Conventional optical networking relies on lasers transmitting data through a limited number of ultra-fast channels. Microsoft’s MicroLED approach flips that model by distributing data across thousands of slower, parallel channels. According to…