ICC News — On the morning of September 7, during the 24th ICC Optical Communications Conference, NVISION CEO Nie Hui delivered a keynote, "From Silicon Photonic PICs to NPO/CPO/OIO: Breaking Power and Bandwidth Bottlenecks in Intelligent Computing Cluster Interconnect," at Parallel Forum 4, Optical Chips and Semiconductor Process Evolution. He then sat for an interview with ICC's "Optoelectronics Appointment" column. Covering silicon photonics industrialization, high-speed optical interconnect for AI computing clusters, NPO/CPO/OIO roadmaps, and domestic supply-chain collaboration, Nie systematically laid out his entrepreneurial logic, product cadence, and three-year priorities.
From Bell Labs to Intel: An Industry Veteran's Accumulation
Nie is a "veteran" who has worked in optoelectronics for nearly three decades. His résumé almost spans silicon photonics from lab to industry — from frontier research at Bell Labs to global leadership of Intel's silicon photonics product line, he personally took part in building and operating the world's first company to mass-produce heterogeneously integrated silicon photonics at scale.
In 2019, Nie returned to China and joined a LiDAR startup. There he led multiple 0-to-1 and 1-to-100 breakthroughs in technology, product development, and value-chain cultivation. That experience showed him the power of Moore's Law in optoelectronic devices — LiDAR fell from about USD 10,000 per unit to under RMB 1,000 today, while performance rose sharply. By contrast, after more than twenty years the optical module industry's pace of progress was relatively modest, until the AI computing wave truly lit the fuse for high-speed optical interconnect.
Founding Intent: Remaking Optical Interconnect with an IC Methodology
On founding NVISION after returning home, Nie said frankly that large-scale AI computing clusters made high-speed optical interconnect a core hard requirement for upgrading the computing industry. He is optimistic about domestic optical interconnect despite real challenges; the quality of Chinese engineers, rapid industry-chain progress, and strong national strategy give him confidence.
Nie especially noted that the national IC "15th Five-Year Plan" explicitly calls for "compute-in-memory, 3D integration, and optoelectronic convergence," closely matching his founding intent. The English name "New vision" carries his new vision — using a next-generation Moore's Law mindset, achieving optoelectronic convergence through optoelectronic 3D packaging, and reconstructing optical interconnect with large-scale IC methods. That is the heart of his entrepreneurship.
Product Matrix: From 1.6T to 6.4T, Covering Scale-Out and Scale-Up
In the interview, Nie detailed NVISION's current product layout. The company offers 1.6T integrated silicon photonic PICs for high-speed data-center optical modules, and 3.2T NPO plus 6.4T CPO/CPX optical engine solutions for next-generation scale-up optical interconnect.
He explained that optical modules mainly serve scale-out. As AI clusters rose, cluster interconnect became a bottleneck and optical-module demand surged. The market mainly has EML and silicon photonics options; EML capacity is clearly constrained and costly, while silicon photonics' share is rising — yet silicon photonic chip capacity itself is under pressure. NVISION works with the domestic supply chain on 1.6T silicon photonic chips and NPO/CPO solutions, aiming to match mainstream international performance while doing better on capacity and yield.
NPO and CPO mainly target scale-up. Nie noted that next-generation optical interconnect will use both copper and fiber, with optics taking a growing share, pushing NPO/CPO bandwidth needs to about ten times those of today's scale-out scenarios. Currently, 1.6T PIC and 3.2T NPO optical engine chips have clear customer demand and are in or preparing for sampling; the 6.4T optical engine is in tape-out and packaging R&D, with sampling expected by year-end or early next year. Nie called it China's first truly 3D-packaged optical engine, with substantial engineering and domestic supply-chain coordination work still ahead.
What Customers Care About Most: Bandwidth Density, Power, Latency, and Engineering Trade-offs
Asked what AI server, switch, and HPC cluster customers care about most when choosing next-generation optical interconnect, Nie gave a clear list: bandwidth density, loss, power, small form-factor packaging, thermal budget, reliability, and cost.
He further explained that scale-up and super-node scenarios demand more aggressive optical interconnect; bandwidth density — especially shoreline bandwidth density — is a core metric. High bandwidth density creates power and size challenges, which is why 2.5D and 3D packaging must enter the field. Low latency is also a strong requirement — beyond power and cost, retimers and DSPs face growing constraints; optical interconnect must move ever closer to compute chips, bringing more risk points and engineering trade-offs. Nie concluded that this has essentially become a classic semiconductor and Moore's Law scaling problem.
Standards Unsettled, Customization Rising: Challenges and Opportunities for Startups
As a silicon photonics startup jointly defining and debugging with optical-module and cloud vendors, NVISION has also faced practical issues.
Nie noted that the optical module industry has long prized standardization and interoperability; AI data-center modules have clear MSA standards — standards first, products follow. In scale-up, standards are far from unified — OIF, ODCC, Open NPO, CPX, OCI and others coexist, and optical, electrical, and test standards still lack consensus. That challenges startups and the industry. He even judges that next-generation OIO may never have a single unified standard, but move toward customization. Yet Nie also sees opportunity: unsettled standards mean the window to help define them remains open.
Flexible Collaboration Models and a Clear Industry Plan
NVISION offers bare chips, optical engine modules, and full interconnect solutions to fit different partners. Nie said partners span optical modules, servers, switches, and AI computing cluster customers.
Over the next 1–3 years, NVISION focuses on optical interconnect solutions centered on semiconductor silicon photonic chips and advanced packaging. Nie believes NPO will be the mainstream path for domestic and overseas scale-up in the coming years; CPO faces co-packaging challenges but will also be adopted by major international players, and NVISION's 3D optical engine solutions can likewise serve CPO. Next-generation OIO will apply to higher-density chip-to-chip optical interconnect — an even larger market and opportunity.
Nie stressed that NVISION will stay grounded, iterating with the industry chain through silicon photonics and optoelectronic co-packaging to meet the next optical interconnect boom. Rooted in a fully domestic supply chain, the company actively co-develops and tapes out with domestic foundries, pursuing localization in high-end 1.6T and NPO chips. As domestic AI clusters surge, NVISION will accelerate product iteration and production ramp to better serve customers.
Office Addresses
Building A, Kehai Building, Zhangjiang Town, Pudong New Area, Shanghai
Building A1, Xinjianyuan Digital Workshop, Suzhou Industrial Park, Huqiu District, Suzhou
Public Service Building, Zone 1, QuRate Engine Photonics Manufacturing Park, Chang'an District, Xi'an
Phone
021-6019 7581
sales@nvisiontech.ai / hr@nvisiontech.ai / hr-campus@nvisiontech.ai
