SmartSens targets 2027 commercialization of Micro LED optical interconnects for AI infrastructure

SmartSens’ bet on Micro LED optical interconnects is a strategic strike at AI’s bandwidth bottleneck. A 2027 commercialization would disrupt silicon photonics and VCSEL incumbents, forcing TSMC and Intel to accelerate co-packaged optics integration and triggering GaN substrate capacity expansion. U.S. export controls on advanced packaging tools have already inflated validation costs for non-U.S. players, while Taiwan, China and South Korea’s dominance in GaN epitaxy concentrates supply chain risk on mainland IDMs. To counter Luminous and Ayar Labs’ CPO ecosystem lead, SmartSens must lock in domestic AI chipmakers for closed-loop validation. Within 18 months, the industry will enter an ‘interconnect-defined compute’ era—control over low-power, high-density interconnect standards equals control over AI infrastructure pricing.