Foxconn Interconnect's chairman singles out continuous-wave lasers and optical fiber as the binding constraint in photonics, and Foxconn is weighing joint investments upstream to secure that supply — the same move Nvidia made with Lumentum and Coherent. An assembler putting its own capital behind the bottleneck is a harder signal than the sell-side framing of lasers as the next HBM that Citi's technology team floated earlier this month.
Reminiscent of $NVDA w/ $LITE + $COHR: Foxconn is now considering joint investments to avoid upstream material shortages. Foxconn Interconnect Chairman identifies CW lasers and fiber as the biggest bottleneck in photonics. Very interesting to see these two themes reiterated
Serenity · (@aleabitoreddit) · 2026-09-08
Citibank TMT: "lasers and optical fibers are being positioned as the "next HBM."
I've been talking about lasers like $LITE / $AAOI since 2025... and architectural shifts toward CW, ahead of the current industry consensus.
And fully agree with Lightmatter/Citi.
Just for reference:
For lasers: $LITE / $SIVE / $AAOI / $COHR / $MTSI / Furukawa / Sumitomo are your better known ones.
For fiber: $GLW / Furukawa / Fujikura / Sumitomo are your more well-known exposure (obviously a lot more in the supply chain) *disclosure, personal exposure to theme
With added commentary that: "Tight supply conditions will support a scarcity premium for these assets."
We're already seeing price hikes with lasers as seen with $SIVE channel checks at CIOE 2026 Shenzhen today + $LITE commentary from earnings.
So I think the 2027–2028 photonics supercycle will look a lot like memory did in 2025–2026.
Especially as optical content/GPU-ASIC goes up significantly per Goldman Sachs revised estimates...
Foxconn Interconnect's chairman singles out continuous-wave lasers and optical fiber as the binding constraint in photonics, and Foxconn is weighing joint investments upstream to secure that supply — the same move Nvidia made with Lumentum and Coherent. An assembler putting its own capital behind the bottleneck is a harder signal than the sell-side framing of lasers as the next HBM that Citi's technology team floated earlier this month.
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