Who's that man in black? :)

The #ECOC2024 Industry Awards are now open for submissions 🏆

Get the recognition you and your company deserve through these prestigious honours.

Find out more on categories, and how to enter: https://t.co/WFCLMfziXe

Entries close on Friday 17th May pic.twitter.com/47RA7DLysC

— ECOC Exhibition (@ECOC_Exhibition) March 4, 2024

The proliferation of new data centers is staggering. Loudon Co. VA is basically at capacity, developers are desperately requesting parcel rezoning's for further DC expansion, pushing down to Richmond now...Blackstone dropping $25B in AZ on DC's...etc. etc.

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/hourigans-proposed-campus-in-virginias-henrico-county-could-span-13-data-centers/

Yikes is right...

Tech giant Elon Musk forecasted that with the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, the world should embrace itself for scarcity in the domain of electricity and transformers by 2025.

“The artificial intelligence compute coming online appears to be increasing by a factor of 10 every six months. Like, obviously that cannot continue at such a high rate forever, or it’ll exceed the mass of the universe, but I’ve never seen anything like it. The chip rush is bigger than any gold rush that’s ever existed,” said Musk.

To compound the problem, I just read some crazy figures on crypto mining and how the U.S. market for Blockchain specifically, is looking at an 86% CAGR through 2030.

Carlin, I personally view the head count as prudent and thoughtful fiscal management. Let's reflect on the last 6 months, 12 months, pick a time frame where we have been inundated by news of over hiring and corporate layoffs. Numbers probably in the tens of thousands by the largest companies in the world. Don't get me wrong, the hiring of key, strategic personnel in recent months is welcomed and necessary for forward progress.

93.8% gross margin!!! Just for a littler perspective...

S&P 500 Companies With Highest Net Profit Margins
10/23/23

In most recently reported quarter

Company Ticker Last reported quarter's net adj. profit margin
VICI Properties (VICI) 47.7
CME Group (CME) 46.7
Visa (V) 42.4
VeriSign (VRSN) 40.7
Altria Group (MO) 39.8
Marriott International (MAR) 38.7
Mastercard (MA) 35.9
Nvidia (NVDA) 32.3
Public Storage (PSA) 31.8
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) 31.6
MSCI (MSCI) 30.9
Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT) 30.4
Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) 30.3

Sources: S&P Global Market Intelligence, IBD

https://www.investors.com/etfs-and-funds/sectors/sp500-warren-buffett-crushes-elon-musk-on-an-increasingly-key-measure/

10-K tomorrow?

Mar 1, 2022 10-K Annual Report - 2021 FY
Mar 1, 2023 10-K Annual Report - 2022 FY

PHOTONIXFAB

The photonixFAB project aims to empower photonics innovation by SMEs and large entities by providing low barrier access to both low-loss silicon nitride (SiN) and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based photonics platforms with indium phosphide (InP) and lithium niobate (LNO) heterogenous integration capabilities. In doing so, X-FAB, the leading analog/mixed-signal and specialty foundry, is spearheading a strategic initiative aiming to enable the European semiconductor and photonics industries to gain greater sovereignty. This will strengthen the continent’s manufacturing capabilities in key emerging areas. The photonixFAB consortium is made up of major public and private enterprises, plus highly respected research institutes – all focusing on the development and production of next-generation silicon photonics.
These high-profile partners include technology and manufacturing service providers LIGENTEC, SMART Photonics, PHIX Photonics Assembly and Luceda Photonics plus application developers Nokia, NVIDIA, Aryballe, Brolis Sensor Technology and PhotonFirst, as well as the major research organizations CEA-Leti and IMEC.

SMART Photonics will design and fabricate the InP active and passive components, which will be heterogenous integrated onto SiN and SOI platform using micro Transfer printing.

https://smartphotonics.nl/about-us/projects/photonixfab/

Just wondering how a 32% CAGR for U.S. enterprise AI market size correlates to DC CAGR for the same period? I'm seeing estimates of 10-12% which I believe are way too low!

The US enterprise artificial intelligence market size is forecasted to grow at a 32% CAGR through 2030 driven by the growing demand for virtual assistants, chatbots and the need to analyze exponentially growing demand for data sets among companies.$MSFT $GOOGL $NVDA $AMD $AMZN… pic.twitter.com/8wfYBFMITA

— Beth Kindig (@Beth_Kindig) February 26, 2024

I can go on and on...:)

AWS will invest $15B+ in Japan to expand its local data center footprint
2024-01-19

AWS launches second cloud region in Canada
2023-12-22

Amazon rolls out independent cloud for Europe to address stricter privacy…
2023-10-25

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/in-the-news/?media-coverage-cards.sort-by=item.additionalFields.DateArticlePublished&media-coverage-cards.sort-order=desc

More and more and more..DC's coming!

2/26/24
Amazon Web Services Mexico (AWS), a unit of Amazon.com Inc, announced on Monday it will invest over $5 billion to open a cluster of data centers in Mexico, amid growing demand for cloud services as more firms adopt new technologies.
The cluster will be built in the Mexican state of Queretaro, Ruben Mugartegui, head of Amazon Web Services Mexico unit, told Reuters in an interview, adding the investment will be spread through the next 15 years.
The company has been working on this project for more than five years, Mugartegui said.
AWS currently serves clients such as Mexican theater operator Cinepolis, stock exchange BIVA, airline Aeromexico, and local governments.
Cloud computing helps companies access technology services such as storage and databases through the internet, ending the need to own and maintain physical data centers and servers. Companies can cut technology costs by around 20% when they use AWS, Mugartegui said, citing a study.
Amazon has invested over 52 billion pesos ($3.04 billion) in Mexico since its arrival to the country in 2015.

Not sure why we need to hear from 9 Fed speakers this week...my guess is it will be a choppy, hightened volatility week across the board. Need to justify their existence, I suppose...

This Week's Fed Speakers:

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 28:
- 12:00 pm ET: Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks

THURSDAY, FEB. 29:
- 10:50 am ET: Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speech
- 11:00 am ET: Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks
- 1:15 pm ET: Cleveland Fed…

— Benzinga (@Benzinga) February 26, 2024

From the Case filing...

2. On Jan. 24, 2024, Defendant EIA requested "emergency" review and clearance from OMB of a planned collection of proprietary energy information from companies that are engaged in cryptocurrency mining. This request was based on Defendant Decarolis' ostensible determination that if such a collection were not authorized, and if the Paperwork Reduction Act's standard clearance processes were followed, then it was reasonably likely that public harm would occur.

Miners will be scrambling to find way to reduce power consumption...

We touched on this a while back, the miners have an energy consumption problem....Bitcoin down 1.70% -$883.00

🚨SCOOP: The $BTC miners are also using the courts to fight the Biden administration.

Bitcoin miner @RiotPlatforms alongside industry groups @TXblockchain and @DigitalChamber have filed a civil action against @ENERGY, @EIAgov and @OMBPress in order to halt what they call the…

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) February 23, 2024

LWLG not mentioned, however Invited Speakers from META, GOOG (and our friend Jose Pozo) is what got my attention. Thrilled to see two of the largest companies on Earth sending executives to speak about things like "Optical circuit switching for datacenter networking and machine learning supercomputers" (Hong Liu Invited Keynote Fellow/VP, Google) among other topics...

ITF Photonics USA
Photonics solutions: Bridging technical & cost-efficiency challenges
March 24, 2024San Diego,USA

Conveniently held on the eve of OFC 2024, our Imec Technology Forum presents insights on the rapidly evolving R&D and innovations in integrated photonics.

https://www.imecitf.com/2024/photonics

A month to go for OFC 24'...11 months ago Jose posted his Final Report on OFC 23'...note his reply to Lewis Bosher in the comments below:) Jose's enthusiasm is unmatched!

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7040052740516937729/?origin=SHARED_BY_YOUR_NETWORK

NVDA Q4 DC Rev $18.4B up 409% YoY

Nokia to use Nvidia chips on AI-ready radio access network (RAN) solutions
Shares of Nokia Corp. rallied Wednesday, after the telecommunications-networking company announced a collaboration with Nvidia Corp. to position artificial intelligence as fundamental for radio access networks (RAN).
"This is an important collaboration with NVIDIA that will explore how artificial intelligence can play a transformative role in the future of our industry," said Tommi Uitto , president of mobile networks at Nokia . "It is a further example of our anyRAN approach that is helping to make Cloud RAN a commercial reality."
Finland -based Nokia (NOK) (FI:NOKIA) has seen its stock trend lower over the past couple of years amid weakness in its networks business. The company reported last month a fourth-quarter loss of EUR33 million ( $33.6 million ) on revenue that fell 23%.
On Wednesday, Nokia 's U.S. -listed stock rose 1.2% in premarket trading. While it has gained 2.1% year to date, the stock has tumbled 25.3% over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, shares of Nvidia (NVDA), which reports fourth-quarter results after Wednesday's closing bell, have been on a tear, as they have rocketed 236.3% over the past 12 months.
Ahead of Wednesday's open, however, the stock dropped 2%, after sinking 4.4% on Tuesday.
Nokia will use Nvidia 's Grace CPU Superchip for processing, with its Layer 1 accelerator technology and Cloud RAN software. Nokia will also use Nvidia chips for AI applications and RAN acceleration, which will pave the way for "AI- RAN."
The idea is to remove complexity and provide flexibility, to allow customers to get their Cloud RAN services up and running much faster.
"Bringing the power of Nvidia 's advanced computing to Nokia 's platform will deliver more performant and energy- efficient Cloud RAN solutions," said Ronnie Vasishta , senior vice president of telecom at Nvidia .
- Tomi Kilgore
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-21-24 0715ET

hmm?

John Zyskind

Director of System Engineering
Oclaro, Inc.
Jul 2010 - Dec 2012 · 2 yrs 6 mos

Utilizing foundries to scale hybrid electro-optic polymer modulators
Michael Lebby, CEO & Dr. John Zyskind, VP Engineering

slide 14: "Hybrid PICs Increase Performance" ----> green Takeaway bar: "Hybrid PIC's can boost performance of PICs"

slide 15: "Trend towards hybrid PICs" -----> green Takeaway bar: "Mix and match to optimize the best performance"

slide 16: "Representative PIC actors" -----> "What combinations of technology make sense for hybrid PICs?" ----> Lightwave Polymer with InP ----> Lumentum, Finisar, Infinera, Oclaro & Global Communication Semiconductors, LLC ("GCS")

https://api.mziq.com/mzfilemanager/v2/d/307dbc8b-e212-48ba-9968-8cef3f6b5188/c9226a1a-6cbb-d70b-71a5-a3f06ed3a15d?origin=2

A 16 min video summary on (GF) from last Oct. (several mentions of silicon photonics)

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/01/how-globalfoundries-aims-to-remain-worlds-third-biggest-chip-foundry.html

Published June 2020

Wow! I think there's a little company called Nvidia that makes GPU's??

A very cool read, the IE article drawn from a Nature publication. One of the contributing Authors is notable as well as who is funding the research...

US researchers develop 'unhackable' computer chip that works on light
Computations can be performed at light speed in this chip which is ready for deployment for building AI models immediately.
Ameya Paleja
Published: Feb 16, 2024 05:00 AM EST

@ECOC_Exhibition 40m

#ECOCExhibtion Market Focus Sessions are a highlight of the event as the industry's knowledge centre for attendees to find out the latest advances in the optical communications industry.

Read what Michael Lebby, Market Focus Committee Chairman has to say about the sessions👇 pic.twitter.com/kcL06pknGZ

— ECOC Exhibition (@ECOC_Exhibition) February 16, 2024

Great points CarlinNM, Thx

That is incredible, 65% + savings, $313M added to the bottom line....profound!

$NVDA | Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Urges Nations To Embrace 'Sovereign AI,' Predicts Data Center Spending To Hit $2 Trillion By 2029 pic.twitter.com/HxgWvcWLn3

— Benzinga (@Benzinga) February 13, 2024

"ECOC is one of the leading conferences on optical communication and attracts top industry minds from across the world. Our proprietary engineered EO polymers enable an innovative hybrid PIC platform with optical modulators to drive data at higher speeds with less power, together in a very small form factor which is ideal for PIC-based transceivers. We expect to see our hybrid PIC platform performance extend for future generations of optical equipment that will help drive the internet over the next decade. With our commercialization underway, awards such as this further validate our technology and provide industry confirmation of the inherent benefits of our platform," concluded Lebby.

https://www.gophotonics.com/news/details/4325-lightwave-logic-wins-2023-industry-innovation-award-for-hybrid-pic-optical-integration-platform-at-ecoc-2023

Data centers switch on to AI

The increasingly sophisticated AI services on offer from the hyperscale public cloud providers mean power requirements in data centers are likely to rocket in the coming years, the report’s authors say.

While the hyperscalers typically need 10-14kW per rack in existing data centers, this is likely to rise to 40-60kW for AI-ready racks equipped with resource-hungry GPUs. This means that overall consumption of data centers across the US is likely to reach 35GW by 2030, up from 17GW in 2022.

Machine learning is on track to consume all the energy being supplied, a model that is costly, inefficient, and unsustainable.

Improved power efficiency is not negotiable, it is a critical necessity or the lights will be going out and we'll be reading by candle light again!

There's an interesting article in the Jan/Feb 24' issue of Semiconductor Digest titled:

IEDM Grapples with CMOS 2.0 Challenges 4 days ago

Sixty years after CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) began to transform the semiconductor industry, CMOS 2.0 is taking shape, now as then, with lower power consumption as a driving force. At the recent International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2023), participants heard of a rich pipeline of technologies, including new transistor architectures, backside processing, heterogenous integration of chiplets, optical interconnects, and many other advances.

https://www.semiconductor-digest.com/whats-in-the-january-february-issue-3/
https://www.ieee-iedm.org

Take away: The need for higher performance at lower power. imec, Applied Materials, Qualcomm mentions.

Nvidia reportedly selects Intel Foundry Services for GPU packaging production — could produce over 300,000 H100 GPUs per month
January 31, 2024

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-reportedly-selects-intel-foundry-services-for-chip-packaging-production-could-produce-over-300000-h100-gpus-per-month

Michael Lebby
Director Business Development/Investor (with Board observer positions on investments)
Intel Capital
1999 - 2001 · 2 yrs
Intel Capital, Santa Clara, California. In 1999, Lebby joined Intel as a corporate investor and was responsible for sourcing, negotiating, and closing private placement equity deals in the optical networking, component, and semiconductor arenas. Lebby served as Intel’s board observer on a number of photonics based start-ups. Lebby was one of the co-founders of Intel's photonics division in the year 2000.

Laila Partridge Lightwave Logic Independent Director
Director, Strategic Investments
Intel Capital
Jan 1996 - Oct 2006 · 10 yrs 10 mos
Successful manager and individual contributor, using minority equity investments, spin-outs, internal incubation, acquisitions, licensing and marketing to promote diversity of technical paths and products for Intel. Drove investments and acquisitions for enterprise software, communications, semiconductors, and embedded systems including Red Hat, RIM and others.

Intel Executive Launch Team for Itanium®. Conceived, structured, raised and managed Intel 64 Fund, a $250M fund supporting Intel's 64 bit architecture (Itanium® family). HBS Case Study N9-800-351

We can assume Laila made quite an impression on ML while working together at Intel Capital, enough to ask her to become an ID...tight circles...:)

Semi equip's are moving strongly on this news...

Had to do a double take on this headline just crossing CNBC...speaking of ASML

Great sign seeing them ramp up the work force CarlinNM, the ASML and NXP investments (among others) is what really has my attention. These two companies are juggernauts in the industry!

Hybrid PICs: Pioneering New Frontiers in Photonic Integration[/b]

High speed, low power, tiny modulators in a polymer PIC platform are poised to enable 800G/1.6Tbps data communications, driven in part by artificial intelligence.
The issue of reducing power consumption, increasing information in optical networks in a datacenter rich environment has become a huge topic of discussion at major optical communication conferences, and industry in general. Ultra-high speed, ultra-low power modulators, ultra-small foundry-based polymer modulators are seen to be an enabling technology that can help mitigate power consumption in transceivers, line cards, servers, and routers. This is especially the case where the appetite for artificial intelligence, machine learning is driving huge investments for higher performance datacenter equipment/cap ex. Electro-optic polymer modulators are now poised to address power consumption with their inherent ultra-high speed and very low power properties (>70GHz EO S21 3dB bandwidths, and sub 1V drive voltages). Electro-optic polymers are now additive with silicon foundries to integrated photonics platforms such as silicon photonics to increase performance significantly. The latest performance of polymer modulators will be reported that aligns very well with 800G and 1.6Tbps transceiver technology. This talk will also review the latest work in photonics industry decade roadmaps (that look out to 2030-2040) on both the integrated photonics (PIC) level for hybrid PICs, as well as PIC packaging level for the various technologies to package hybrid PICs.

https://picinternational.net/speakers
I like the way this is written...:)

Zooming out...

Hyperscale Data Centres to Exceed 1,000 Sites Globally Next Year: JLL. With 314 new sites in development worldwide, the number of hyperscale data centres is expected to pass 1,000 by the end of 2024 — up from 500 five years ago, according to JLL.May 17, 2023

How many data centers are there in India?

In 2022, the data center capacity in India was at 637 MW. India is ranked the 13th largest data center market in the world with 138 data centers. Additionally, 45 new data centers with a combined 13 million square feet and 1,015 MW of capacity are scheduled to be developed by the end of 2025.
Sep 15, 2023