By Light Reading
Publication Date: 2026-03-13 14:36:00
As the optical networking industry converges on Los Angeles for OFC 2026, the hottest topic on the show floor could be power. Not the gigawatt kind that’s keeping data center developers up at night, though that’s a problem, too. This is about who moves the market in an industry that’s reorganizing around demand for AI infrastructure.
Nvidia’s strategic investments in optical component makers Lumentum and Coherent – $2 billion each – was as loud as boot heels on a hardwood floor. Most see it as good news. It’s a chip giant validating optics as essential AI infrastructure, expanding capacity and accelerating R&D. Analyst Ian Redpath, from Omdia, Light Reading’s sister company, argued as much in a note published earlier this month, framing the investments as capacity expansion rather than supply redirection, and broadly positive for the ecosystem.
But, hey, I’m skeptical. I don’t trust my own memory. I wonder if a more complicated picture is developing, one where AI’s appetite for optical components reshapes the competitive dynamics, tilts the supplier leverage and generates unintended consequences that extend well beyond the data center.
The supply crunch is not going away soon
Ciena CEO Gary Smith said it plainly during the company’s fiscal first quarter earnings call earlier this month: Ciena’s revenue growth would be higher if the company weren’t constrained by supply. That’s the world’s largest optical…