Three giants join forces: Qualcomm (QCOM.US), Lumentum (LITE.US), and Corning (GLW.US) showcase optical interconnect, targeting AI horizontal scaling architecture

According to Golden Ten Data, Lumentum (LITE.US) announced on Monday a joint demonstration plan with Qualcomm (QCOM.US) and Corning (GLW.US) at ECOC 2026, which will showcase high-density die-to-die optical interconnects for AI scale-up architectures.

This board-level demonstration will integrate Qualcomm's D2D interface IP subsystem, Lumentum (LITE)'s VCSEL-based optical interconnect platform, and Corning's multimode fiber connectivity.

In pre-market trading, Corning (GLW) rose 3%, Lumentum (LITE) was up 2.4%, and Qualcomm (QCOM) increased by 1.3%.

The three companies stated in a joint announcement, "This demonstration will feature a massively parallel optical D2D architecture designed for future Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) and Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) implementations, supporting emerging D2D interfaces such as UCIe."

The statement said that by extending high-density D2D connections over optical links spanning tens of meters—while maintaining low latency and low power consumption—this architecture enables highly scalable bandwidth density, as AI systems are driving interconnect demands beyond the practical limits of today's electrical connections.

Corning's multimode fiber glass ferrules will provide the high-density fiber connectivity used in the demonstration, highlighting the importance of fiber density as optical links move ever closer to compute devices and advanced packaging environments.

Lumentum (LITE) Chief Technology Officer Matt Sysak stated, "This demonstration highlights how Lumentum's 1060 nm VCSEL platform can bring high-density optical connectivity closer to AI computation."