Photonics
Optical components and silicon photonics move data between chips, servers, and data centers. As AI clusters scale, bandwidth and power efficiency become constraints, which puts transceivers, lasers, DSPs, and optical packaging in the spotlight.
This segment sits inside the physical and semiconductor supply chain that supports AI training and inference. The important question is not only whether AI demand grows, but where scarcity shows up: chips, memory, networking, power, sites, or specialized services.
For 13F analysis, the tag is meant to separate the specific bottleneck a company is exposed to from the broad AI label. That helps distinguish a direct accelerator supplier from a power-equipment company, a data center landlord, or a miner with a power portfolio that could be repurposed for HPC.
- Optical transceivers and modules
- Lasers, modulators, and photonic integrated circuits
- Switching, routing, and interconnect systems
- Foundry and packaging partners
- 800G/1.6T adoption
- Hyperscaler capex and AI cluster density
- Margin pressure from rapid product transitions
- Whether silicon photonics shifts value from modules to integrated platforms
Situational Awareness LP
Leopold Aschenbrenner · Q4 2025 filed 2026-02-11
Optical interconnects, transceivers, silicon photonics, lasers — components specific to high-bandwidth data center networking.
| Ticker | Name | Value | Instrument |
|---|---|---|---|
| LITE | LUMENTUM HOLDINGS INC | $479M | SH |
| COHR | COHERENT CORP | $89M | SH |
| Ticker | Action | Value |
|---|---|---|
| LITE | Bought / sold | +$411M |
| COHR | Added | +$60M |