OpenLight Eyes Volume Production as AI Demand Accelerates Silicon Photonics Adoption

As AI infrastructure drives demand for higher-bandwidth, power-efficient optical connectivity, the challenge for silicon photonics companies is shifting from technological innovation to commercial-scale production. OpenLight is looking to capitalise on this transition through its heterogeneous silicon photonics platform, integrated laser technology and roadmap extending from 1.6T to 3.2T optical connectivity. In an exclusive interview with Semicon Leaders Asia, Adam Carter, Chief Executive Officer at OpenLight,Kevin Soukup, Chief Operating Officer at OpenLight, and Kirk Ouellette, Chief Strategy Officer and Interim Chief Revenue Officer at OpenLight, discuss how the company is turning its technology capabilities into commercial opportunities across AI, cloud, networking and emerging photonics markets. They share insights into scaling manufacturing operations, strengthening foundry partnerships, accelerating customer adoption and expanding OpenLight’s global presence, while addressing the broader challenge of moving advanced photonic designs from development to volume production.

Q. OpenLight is expanding its presence across AI, cloud, networking and advanced communications. What customer and market opportunities are creating the strongest momentum for the company at this stage of its growth?

OpenLight is seeing strong momentum from customers looking for ways to scale optical connectivity as bandwidth requirements continue to increase. AI infrastructure is an important driver, particularly as the growth of accelerated computing and increasingly distributed AI workloads places greater demands on the optical links connecting compute, memory and networking systems.

At the same time, we see opportunities across data center networking, cloud infrastructure and other high-performance communications applications where power, footprint, cost and scalability are becoming increasingly important. Beyond these markets, the same advantages of heterogeneous silicon photonics can be applied to a broader range of applications, including industrial LiDAR, consumer electronics and other applications where compact, efficient and highly integrated optical solutions are needed.

What is particularly encouraging is the breadth of customer engagement. We are working with established industry leaders as well as emerging companies across multiple markets that are evaluating heterogeneous silicon photonics as a path to higher-performance, more integrated optical solutions. The transition from technology evaluation to production is an important milestone for OpenLight, and our focus now is on supporting customers as they move toward volume deployment across these growing markets.

Q. OpenLight’s platform combines heterogeneous silicon photonics integration with custom PASIC design. How does this approach help customers address growing demands for higher bandwidth, better power efficiency and greater integration?

The fundamental advantage is integration. OpenLight brings III-V lasers and other active photonic devices together with silicon photonics, enabling customers to build optical functionality directly into the photonic integrated circuit rather than relying on separate optical components and complex external assembly. This integrated approach also provides very low loss between active components and waveguides, which is important as performance and bandwidth requirements continue to increase.

Our PASIC approach extends that integration into the design process. Through our open Process Design Kit (PDK) customers have access to a comprehensive library of passive and active photonic components, including integrated lasers, optical amplifiers, high-speed modulators and high-speed photodetectors. This gives customers the flexibility to design PASICs optimized for their specific applications rather than being limited to a fixed device architecture.

The PDK also provides a path from architecture and schematic design through functional verification, physical layout, design verification and tape-out. OpenLight can then guarantee PASIC designs developed using the PDK and manufacture them through its foundry partners. This helps reduce barriers to entry and gives customers a more streamlined path from a photonic design to a manufacturable product.

As bandwidth continues to scale, simply adding more components is not a sustainable approach. Customers need greater functionality and performance in a smaller, more power-efficient package. By combining heterogeneous integration with a scalable PASIC design platform, OpenLight enables customers to integrate more functionality while reducing optical interfaces, alignment requirements and overall system complexity—providing a path to higher bandwidth, lower power and greater integration at scale.

Q. Kevin, with your experience leading GlobalFoundries’ Silicon Photonics business, what attracted you to OpenLight, and where do you see the biggest opportunities to strengthen the company’s operations and support growing customer demand?

There are three things that excite me about OpenLight: Team, Technology, and Traction.

The team is world-class and has developed a technology platform capable of integrating lasers, high-speed modulators, and optical amplifiers with silicon photonics. This is helping accelerate the next generation of optical networking in the data center while also opening a variety of new applications beyond the data center.

This technology has translated into a strong customer base, with customers engaged in design, qualification, and early production. That progression—from technology development to customer qualification and early production—is particularly compelling to me because it demonstrates that the platform is addressing real customer needs and has a clear path to scale.

My goal at OpenLight is to improve the speed and resilience of our manufacturing operations while rapidly scaling our capabilities to support the growth of our customers. As customer adoption increases, we need to ensure that our operational infrastructure, manufacturing processes and supply chain are ready to support that growth with the quality, reliability and responsiveness our customers expect.

Q. Kirk, you have worked extensively across semiconductor and photonics markets. Which customer relationships, partnerships and market opportunities do you see as particularly important for accelerating OpenLight’s commercial growth?

OpenLight’s commercial growth is ultimately about helping our customers successfully develop and bring their own PICs to market. We have customers across a range of markets, including datacom, LiDAR and photonic sensing, and we see significant opportunity to deepen these relationships as they move from design and evaluation toward qualification and production.

Our foundry partners, including both III-V and silicon photonics wafer suppliers, are equally important. They are critical to continuing to mature the technology, scale manufacturing and enable OpenLight to serve the broader photonics ecosystem. Building strong, long-term relationships across this ecosystem will be an important part of supporting customer growth.

The industry need for heterogeneous integration of III-V and silicon has grown significantly as bandwidth, power and integration requirements continue to increase, particularly in datacom. OpenLight’s differentiated platform and PDK give customers the ability to develop their own PICs using heterogeneous integration, creating opportunities across both established and emerging markets.

Looking ahead, I see a significant opportunity to expand OpenLight’s customer base and strategic partnerships globally while helping existing customers move more quickly toward production. Our focus is not simply on providing technology; it is on creating an ecosystem that enables customers to develop differentiated products and bring them to market efficiently. That is what will ultimately drive OpenLight’s commercial growth.

Q. As AI infrastructure continues to drive demand for faster and more efficient optical connectivity, which applications do you believe could see the strongest adoption of OpenLight’s technology over the coming years?

We believe the strongest adoption opportunities will be in applications where the combination of bandwidth, power efficiency, density and integration is becoming a limiting factor.

AI and data center infrastructure are clearly among the most significant near-term opportunities. As AI workloads continue to scale, the demand for higher-bandwidth optical connectivity between compute, memory and networking systems is increasing rapidly. Our 1.6T platform is an important step in addressing these requirements, while our work toward 3.2T and beyond is aimed at supporting the next generation of optical connectivity. As data rates increase, the industry needs solutions that can deliver more bandwidth without a proportional increase in power, size and system complexity.

We also see opportunities in co-packaged and near-packaged optics, as well as other advanced communications applications where highly integrated optical solutions can provide advantages in performance, power and footprint.

Importantly, the potential applications for our technology extend beyond data centers and networking. Heterogeneous silicon photonics can enable compact, efficient and highly integrated optical solutions for applications such as industrial and automotive LiDAR, consumer electronics, sensing and other emerging applications that require sophisticated optical functionality in a small form factor.

The common thread across these markets is the need to integrate more optical functionality while reducing power, size, cost and complexity. That is where we believe OpenLight’s platform can provide a significant advantage and create opportunities well beyond a single market segment.

Q. With the addition of Kevin and Kirk to the leadership team, what are the key priorities for OpenLight over the next phase, particularly around customer adoption, technology development and expanding its global market presence?

Our next phase is about converting the strong technology foundation we have established into broader customer adoption, volume production and global market growth.

That means continuing to work closely with customers to move designs from evaluation and qualification into production, while continuing to advance the platform to address the industry's evolving bandwidth, power and integration requirements. Our 3.2T technology development is an important part of that roadmap, building on the progress we have already made with our 1.6T platform.

Kevin and Kirk bring complementary experience that is particularly important at this stage of our growth. Kevin’s focus is on scaling our technology platform, operating infrastructure and customer delivery capabilities, helping ensure that we can execute and support customers as adoption grows. Kirk is focused on accelerating customer adoption, developing strategic relationships, expanding our global market presence and driving revenue growth.

Together, their experience in scaling and commercializing silicon photonics and semiconductor businesses strengthens OpenLight’s ability to move from technology development into broader market adoption. Our goal is to deepen relationships with customers and partners, expand our reach across AI, cloud, networking and advanced communications, and position OpenLight as a platform partner that can help customers move from photonic architecture to manufacturable products.

Ultimately, we are focused on building the operational and commercial foundation to scale OpenLight alongside the growing demand for high-performance, highly integrated optical technologies.