A new technology developed by Siemens in collaboration with NVIDIA accelerates EUV computational lithography simulation by more than 10x, supporting complex patterning for advanced AI chips.
Shanghai Fanchuangwei Technology's high-transparency optical AR glasses lens project has settled in Huangyan, Taizhou, to be carried out in two phases by Fanke Technology (Taizhou), with total investment of about RMB 550 million. Phase one, at about RMB 150 million, plans to complete an innovation center and pilot production line by 2027. Phase two, at about RMB 400 million, targets annual output of 100 tonnes of high-purity silicon carbide optical material by 2028. Aimed at AI glasses and AR terminals, the project covers the full chain from optical materials and etching processes to optical devices.
Why we recommend it: The source gives the investment figures for both phases, production line timelines and a target of 100 tonnes of silicon carbide optical material per year, useful for gauging the pace of silicon carbide waveguide industrialization.
Sandisk announced Made for Meta storage products licensed by Meta for Quest headsets and VR glasses. The Settings app in Horizon OS 2.9 PTC can now recognize external storage and manage internal and external data in one place.
Hesai held the global launch of Kosmo at its Maxwell super factory in Shanghai on October 14, unveiling a 3D world data engine and disclosing that it has entered robotic motion modules and begun commercial deliveries. Li Yifan said that LiDAR units that sold for more than RMB 300,000 back then can now be produced for around $200, with the production cycle shortened to one unit every five to six seconds.
Shanghai Xihe Technology has released the registration version of its STAR Market IPO prospectus, describing itself as one of the world's major suppliers of silicon photonic integrated chips. Its customers include leading optical module makers and cloud service providers, and its products are already shipping at scale into AI clusters and hyperscale data centers. According to estimates by optical module makers, at the same speed and distance, silicon photonic solutions can reduce total cost by nearly 20% and cut the volume of components within a module by nearly 30%.
Why we recommend it: The source provides cost and volume data for silicon photonics versus discrete components, helping to understand the domestic supply chain for AI data center optical interconnects.
Salience Labs, a University of Oxford spinout developing photonic chips for AI data centers, announced GBP 95 million in funding to scale mass production of optical circuit switches and expand its presence in Silicon Valley.
Why we recommend it: The source article explains the positioning of optical circuit switching chips for AI data centers, helping understand where optical switching fits in compute networks
Salience Labs, which develops photonic chips for AI data center interconnects, has closed an oversubscribed USD 125 million Series B round. The company previously demonstrated a 64-port all-optical silicon photonic circuit switch at ECOC 2026.
Why we recommend it: The source article links the funding to the 64-port all-optical switch demonstration at ECOC, helping assess the commercial progress of silicon photonic optical switching
The article argues that AI capabilities can be upgraded over the air, but the optical experience of a diffractive waveguide is hard to fix once finalized. The development of Leqi's second-generation AI glasses focuses on four engineering challenges: hiding the grating, suppressing rainbow artifacts, thinning the lens, and reducing reflections while preserving brightness. These are also the issues consumer AI glasses must solve to look like ordinary eyewear.
TDK showcased at CEATEC an ultrathin meta-optics reflector designed for retinal projection smart glasses. The prototype is monochrome green with 750p resolution and a 45-degree diagonal field of view. The reflector is only 150 nanometers thick and achieves 80% visible-light transmittance. TDK plans to launch the green version by the end of 2026, a full-color version in May 2027, and mass production within a few years.
Why we recommend it: The source article gives thickness, transmittance, field of view and mass-production timeline, enabling comparison with waveguide approaches to understand retinal projection
A team led by the University of Central Florida (UCF) will receive a five-year, $19.2 million grant from the US Army Research Office to study light propagation and control in complex dynamic environments. The project, led by Guifang Li, will explore weak backscattering coherent measurement, inverse methods, AI analysis and multi-plane light conversion, with the goal of measuring and rapidly correcting light field distortions when remote sensors or beacons cannot be placed. Potential applications include directed-energy systems, biological tissue imaging, laser medicine, remote sensing and free-space optical communications.
ASML said its existing 2027 and 2028 supply plans cannot fully meet customer demand and that it is studying a further expansion of 2028 capacity beyond the previously planned 30% increase. Quarterly sales through September 27 were EUR 11.7 billion, up more than 50% year over year. The NXE:3800F EUV lithography system slated for introduction next year will raise productivity from 230 to 260 wafers per hour.
Why we recommend it: Capacity expansion and productivity upgrades are proceeding in parallel, offering concrete industry clues on how AI demand translates into EUV lithography equipment supply constraints.
Credo has launched the Short Reach Micro-emitter Optics (SRMO) working group within the Open Compute Project (OCP) to develop specifications for high-speed data center interconnects with industry partners.
UK-based silicon photonics company Salience Labs has closed a USD 125 million Series B round to expand development of optical circuit switch (OCS) technology and ease network bottlenecks in AI data centers.
Why we recommend it: The source article highlights the positioning of optical circuit switching against AI data center bottlenecks, helping understand capital enthusiasm for silicon photonic switching
The 32nd VISION machine vision trade show, organized by Messe Stuttgart, took place in Stuttgart last week, attracting more than 9,000 professional visitors, up 14% from 2024. The event drew a record number of exhibitors and presented the VISION Start-Up Award.
Jiangsu Yotai Photonics listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange on October 9 at an issue price of 13.75 yuan per share, offering about 17.6667 million shares and raising about 243 million yuan. The share price rose 449% on its first day of trading. The company mainly produces optical modules and optical interconnect products for data centers.
An article by VR Tuoluo notes that some AI glasses can now record everyday conversations with user permission, organize key information into searchable long-term memory, and extract schedules from conversations to send proactive reminders. Brands including RayNeo have introduced such features.
A Laser Focus World article describes how photonics provides new measurement tools for agriculture, including monitoring crop conditions, assessing food quality and controlling plant growth.
NVIDIA and Cisco jointly announced plans for the USFP (Ultra-Small Form Factor Pluggable) optical module on October 12. This high-density pluggable optical module supports 400Gb/s per lane and targets the scaling needs of next-generation AI factory networks, helping control network complexity, power consumption and cost as connection scale grows.
Why we recommend it: The article explains the motivation behind two leading vendors jointly defining a new package form factor, helping assess the evolution of optical module formats for AI networks
Kunyou Optoelectronics announced the completion of a C+ round exceeding 1 billion yuan, with investors undisclosed. The company's 12-inch wafer-level optics production line in Lingang, Shanghai, built with an investment of 2 billion yuan, is expected to be completed and come online in 2027, targeting AR, fiber optics, optical communications, automotive optics and optical computing markets. This follows its C round in January 2026 and a C+ round of nearly 400 million yuan in April.
Why we recommend it: The article lists three funding rounds this year and progress on the 12-inch wafer-level optics line, helping understand capital and capacity deployment in wafer-level optics
Jio Platforms, part of Reliance Industries, showcased several AI wearable devices at the India Mobile Congress 2026 (IMC 2026). Among them, Jio AI smart glasses support voice-operated UPI QR code payments in India, targeting everyday users through Jio's 5G network and AI ecosystem.
On September 24, Zuckerberg's net worth reached about $266.4 billion, surpassing Michael Dell to become the world's fourth-richest person. Meta shares closed at $777.59 that day, up about 36% in September. The article argues that the AI agent Muse, launched on September 8, boosted market sentiment, and discusses Meta's smart glasses business.
Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing has passed its listing hearing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. CIC says it is the world's only supplier with capabilities in PCBs, optical chips and optical modules at the same time. These products together account for about 9% to 14% of AI server material costs, and the company is expanding in optical interconnects through Source Photonics in optical modules.
Images of ByteDance's upcoming Pico Space Pro headset have appeared in Japanese regulatory certification documents. Pico and ByteDance had previously mentioned plans to launch a next-generation headset.
The global smart glasses industry faced three regulatory tests in early October: Dutch eyewear chain Hans Anders suspended sales of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses at more than 400 stores in the Netherlands and Belgium; the Norwegian government plans to submit a bill temporarily banning the use of AI glasses in parks, beaches, museums and other venues; and Australia's privacy regulator OAIC announced an investigation into a Shenzhen-based company.
Shenzhen Zhishang Technology announced the signing of a 2027 Demand Forecast Cooperation Memorandum with customer PH. The customer expects to purchase MPO fiber optic patch cords and other fiber optic connectors from the company in 2027, with a forecast target value of $500 million (approximately 3.346 billion yuan). C114 believes optical interconnect demand has expanded from optical modules and optical fiber cables to upstream optical components.
Why we recommend it: The article gives a $500 million connector demand forecast from a single customer, directly showing how AI optical interconnect demand is flowing upstream to components
JEDEC has released the JESD264 standard, setting new certification and reliability requirements for the emerging silicon photonics market. It is the first reliability standard for silicon photonics in AI networks.
Why we recommend it: The article explains that silicon photonic devices now have a dedicated reliability certification standard for the first time, helping understand the threshold for silicon photonics entering large-scale AI network deployment
A VR Tuoluo article notes that the Qwen AI Glasses N1 Pro, unveiled on September 22, adds high-precision eye tracking for visual question answering, object recognition and iris payment. The Wigain Flow full-color AI glasses from Qiuguo, planned for release later, also place an iris camera in the nose pads for identity verification. Eye data is emerging as a new data source for AI glasses to understand users.
The article argues that the core bottleneck keeping AR glasses from the mass market is not chips or software, but the micro-optical engine inside the temples. The micro-optical engine is the image-generation core of AR glasses, and its price remains high even after mass production, with most mass-produced models still selling for several thousand yuan or even more than 10,000 yuan.
At Meta Connect 2026, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta AI glasses will add hearing enhancement, certified by U.S. authorities, to compensate for mild to moderate hearing loss. Users who already own Ray-Ban Meta Audio or Gen 3 must pay a one-time fee of $149.99 to activate it.
Lumentum CEO Michael Hurlston said in an interview in Tokyo that about 70% of demand for some products will remain unmet next year, while other products still face a 30% demand gap through 2028. The company's 2029 capacity is almost fully booked, and it is ramping production at full speed.
Why we recommend it: The article provides specific demand gap percentages, directly reflecting the tightness of laser chips upstream in AI optical communications
The article analyzes the computing requirements of vision-only and LiDAR-fusion approaches in autonomous driving, arguing that computing demand is not simply determined by the number of sensors, but by how the perception system processes data and by its algorithm architecture.
Researchers have proposed the SF-PULSE lensless imaging method, which can monitor living cells over long periods without staining, and successfully imaged and reconstructed glioblastoma cells.
Why we recommend it: The article demonstrates an imaging approach that replaces lenses with computational reconstruction, offering reference value for low-cost microscopy
Lightwave reports a market forecast that the Ethernet optical transceiver market will grow 120% in 2026, driven by AI data center construction.
Wuhan Yuanxi Photonics has completed an angel funding round worth tens of millions of yuan, with investors including CASSTAR and Hongshan Capital. Founded in late 2025, the company will focus on metasurface optical chip R&D and product introduction, targeting the two major markets of intelligent 3D sensing and data center optical interconnects.
Ghost imaging replaces pixelated sensors with correlation measurements between structured illumination and a single-pixel detector. Researchers combined an optical frequency comb with deep learning to achieve faster ghost imaging with higher fidelity.
Why we recommend it: The article shows the combination of frequency comb illumination and AI reconstruction, a typical case of optics and AI working together in computational imaging
An article by Haitun Jun continues the breakdown of Lumentum: EML secures the core profit base of pluggable optical transceivers, while high-power discrete lasers, UHP CW, bet on next-generation CPO/NPO architectures. With supply and demand severely mismatched for high-end laser chips, leading manufacturers with in-house capacity simultaneously benefit from price increases, long-term orders and rising gross margins.
A Laser Focus World article analyzes the surge in industry interest in MicroLED co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions, reflecting their multiple advantages, although technical challenges remain to be resolved.
Why we recommend it: The article reviews the advantages and challenges of MicroLED shifting from displays to optical interconnects, helping assess the maturity of this CPO route
LightCounting's latest report says growth in the Ethernet optical module market was originally expected to slow in 2026, but data from the first nine months defied expectations: cloud provider capital expenditures accelerated sharply from late January to early February and remained strong over the following six months. The full-year Ethernet optical module market is now forecast to grow 120%.
Why we recommend it: The original article explains that the forecast revision was driven by cloud provider capital expenditures, helping to gauge the scale of AI-driven optical module demand
photonicSENS received the VISION Award at VISION 2026 in Stuttgart for its plenoptic camera, which captures a full 2D image and metric depth information simultaneously.
ENGO has launched the engo Titanium AR smart glasses for road runners and cyclists, weighing 28.9 g and featuring adjustable 3D-printed titanium temples.