MarketsGlobal / Other·Ranked Tuesday, August 18, 2026

AI data center optical interconnect market to hit $144 billion by 2030, an over ten-fold increase from 2024 figures, according to new projections — silicon photonics expected to account for nearly two-thirds of revenue, driven by co-packaged optics

Silicon photonics optical interconnect market projected to grow 10x to $144B by 2030.

“A new CIC forecast projects that the data center optical interconnect market will grow from $13.7 billion in 2024 to $144.4 billion by 2030, with…”
— Tom's Hardware UK

Why it matters

Weekly Silicon's editorial model scored this 3.60/10 overall, reading it above all as a markets story — money repricing the semiconductor and AI landscape. Its strongest dimension is economic impact at 6/10 — meaningful consequences for capital, capacity, or competition across the industry — with technology breakthrough close behind at 4/10, pointing to a genuine capability or engineering advance rather than a routine product update. The impact is global rather than tied to one US hub, so the thing to watch is how it filters into domestic supply chains and hiring.

Derived from the AI score breakdown below.

AI score breakdown

#11 that day3.60/ 10

A composite of 3.60/10 put this story at #11 for Tuesday, August 18, 2026, driven mostly by economic impact (6/10) and technology breakthrough (4/10).

Technology breakthrough · weight 30%4/10

Economic impact · weight 25%6/10

Job impact · weight 20%1/10

Regional relevance · weight 15%4/10

Policy & geopolitics · weight 10%1/10

Composite is the weighted sum of the five dimensions. How scoring works →