South Korea risks 'HBM 2.0' trap in emerging CPO market

Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) is reshaping the AI infrastructure landscape, and South Korea risks being locked into a component-only role unless it strengthens platform and integration capabilities. Upstream, the lack of system-level validation will hinder downstream adoption, while current reliance on foreign verification increases supply chain vulnerability, especially amid U.S.-China tech decoupling. Competitors like U.S. firms are leveraging EUV and integration expertise to build competitive moats. Without proactive investment in CPO platform development, Korean players may be sidelined from high-value ecosystem participation. In the next 12–24 months, control over CPO ecosystems will intensify, and failure to advance system-level capabilities will likely result in long-term marginalization in next-gen AI data center value chains.