GTC Nvidia is set to make available Ethernet and InfiniBand switches featuring silicon photonics with co-packaged optics to advance its vision of datacenters with "millions of GPUs," arguing that the equipment can keep power consumption down.

“AI factories are a new class of data centers with extreme scale, and networking infrastructure must be reinvented to keep pace,” Huang said. “By integrating silicon photonics directly into switches, Nvidia is shattering the old limitations of hyperscale and enterprise networks and opening the gate to million-GPU AI factories.”

In the age of AI, high-speed optical networking is more important than ever. Co-packaged optics removes the need for pluggable optics, simplifying network design while increasing resiliency.