Kopin and Fabric.AI Partner to Build Optical Links for AI Data Centres

Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ: KOPN), a leading provider of application-specific optical systems and high-performance microdisplays, including MicroLED displays, announced a strategic collaboration with Fabric.AI (NASDAQ: SBLX), a leading developer of fabless semiconductor solutions for AI infrastructure, to develop MicroLED-based optical interconnect technology that will be designed to replace traditional copper wiring between GPUs and high-performance processors for smart data centres. Fabric.AI has placed a $15M purchase order with Kopin to fund the demonstration chipset.

The jointly developed Neural I/o™ optical interconnect technology offering leverages Kopin’s proprietary MicroLED and patented bi-directional NeuralDisplay™ architecture, repurposing programmable MicroLED pixels as ultra-high-speed optical transceivers capable of moving data at ultra-high speeds while consuming significantly less power per bit than existing solutions.

Today’s GPUs rely on dense copper wiring to communicate with each other, consuming enormous amounts of energy to maintain high-bandwidth data transfer and to cool the system. As artificial intelligence continues to scale, traditional data-centre architectures are approaching their operational limits and are being criticised for their energy consumption and environmental impact. Data centres consume an outsized portion of the world’s energy and are rapidly increasing. Neural I/o™ will be designed to achieve the same functional outcome with a fraction of the power by using photons instead of electrons to move data, eliminating copper interconnects and expensive laser-based systems entirely. The architecture uses each MicroLED pixel as a high-speed transmitter, sending digital bits at extremely fast rates and enabling real-time GPU-to-GPU data exchange at a massive scale.

“The two biggest challenges facing virtually every at-scale AI deployment are power and bandwidth,” said Matt Kimball, Principal Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “The ability to enable chip-to-chip and system-to-system connectivity in a way that enables the full throughput of the accelerator without taxing the power budget has been a persistent challenge. With its Neural I/o technology, built on MicroLED technology, Kopin presents a unique, compelling value proposition.”

The collaboration combines Kopin’s deep expertise in MicroLED materials, process development, and manufacturing with Fabric.AI’s system-level design, marketing and sales focus being developed for AI factory infrastructure. Under the agreement between the companies, Kopin owns 19.9% of Fabric.AI and will be the exclusive manufacturer of the Neural I/o™ chipsets.

Kopin is the leading U.S.‑based producer of MicroLED displays, giving the Company a uniquely strategic position as demand for domestically sourced, high‑performance MicroLED components accelerates. With more than 40 years of experience delivering advanced display technologies, Kopin’s U.S. manufacturing capability provides partners with a secure, reliable, and scalable supply chain—an increasingly critical advantage as MicroLEDs become foundational to next‑generation defence and industrial displays, and now AI infrastructure systems.

The Neural I/o™ product line has the potential to fundamentally reshape Kopin’s growth trajectory. By extending its MicroLED and NeuralDisplay™ capabilities into AI infrastructure, Kopin gains access to the rapidly expanding AI hardware ecosystem — an ecosystem that desperately needs the faster, lower-power performance that Kopin’s technology is expected to provide. This collaboration with Fabric.AI leverages Kopin’s core capabilities into an enormous and fast-growing market.

Management Commentary

Michael Murray, Chief Executive Officer of Kopin, said: “The marriage of our MicroLED technology with our bi-directional NeuralDisplay™ architecture is exactly what the industry needs to break through current interconnect bottlenecks. With Kopin and Fabric.AI’s jointly developed Neural I/o™ technology, we are creating a faster, more efficient optical interface that is expected to be uniquely capable of supporting GPU-to-GPU communication at the massive scale this market requires — it’s the right technology at the right moment to power the next wave of AI acceleration.”

“What makes this opportunity particularly compelling for Kopin is the breadth of its application. Our MicroLED and NeuralDisplay capabilities, originally developed for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality applications in the defence and industrial markets, are now being extended into one of the fastest-growing segments of the technology market. We believe this collaboration with Fabric.AI expands Kopin’s market opportunity dramatically as a strategic enabler of the coming wave of AI infrastructure, positioning us to create significant long-term value for our shareholders, said Murray.”

Josh Silverman, Chief Executive Officer of Fabric.AI, added, “MicroLED-based interconnects are the leading edge in infrastructure for AI data centres. Kopin’s bi-directional MicroLED technology is the foundation of our optical interconnect architecture. Their expertise in MicroLED materials and fabrication, combined with our innovative system-level design for AI factories, creates a patent-protected technology position that we believe will define the next generation of data-centre communication. This is a true technology partnership — Kopin brings the enabling hardware, and together we are building the infrastructure layer that AI factories will require to scale.”