optic

According to Decrypt, the prediction market platform Kalshi announced a partnership with DoubleZero to provide real-time market data subscription services to trading institutions through DoubleZero Edge.The initial data covers Kalshi sports event contracts and cryptocurrency perpetual futures, including Level 1 (best quotes and transaction records) and Level 2 (multiple buy and sell orders) data, which can be directly used for pricing, hedging, and automated trading strategies. DoubleZero uses a multicast system to synchronize and push machine-readable data to all connected parties, significantly lowering the access threshold.

According to Counterpoint Research analysis, if the proposed import ban on Chinese optical modules by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States is implemented, it will primarily impact American cloud providers rather than Chinese suppliers. InnoLight leads the global data center optical module revenue with approximately 27% market share, while Coherent ranks second with about 17%. Chinese manufacturers collectively account for about two-thirds of the global unit supply and approximately 60% of the optical communication module revenue.The analysis points out that Western suppliers like Coherent and Lumentum lack sufficient cleanroom capacity, automated packaging infrastructure, and yield scale in the short term, making it impossible to fill the capacity gap left by Chinese manufacturers within 12-24 months. This could lead to delays in AI cluster deployments by several quarters and increase material costs for cloud providers. At the same time, Chinese module manufacturers rely on high-end 800G/1.6T module revenue from North American hyperscale customers for over 90%, but have achieved partial capacity relocation by establishing factories in Thailand.Counterpoint emphasizes that the optical module supply chain is a highly interdependent system. Chinese manufacturers heavily procure DSP chips from Broadcom and Marvell, as well as lasers and optical chips from Lumentum, Coherent, and Mitsubishi Electric. A forced separation would disrupt the entire ecosystem.

According to Reuters, citing four informed sources, the Trump administration is drafting a ban on the import of new models of optical modules for data centers from China. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is formulating this measure to prohibit the import of new models of optical modules that can transmit data through fiber optic cables within data centers, with officials hoping to release and implement it within this year. The ban aims to prevent Chinese companies from stealing data, implanting malware, or disrupting services at U.S. data centers.The ban may primarily affect Inspur (leading with a 27% share of the global data center optical module market), which was listed in June of this year on the Pentagon's list of companies involved in military activities. U.S. cloud providers (such as AWS) may be forced to turn to alternative suppliers like Coherent and Lumentum, raising costs. The FCC has previously imposed similar restrictions on Chinese drones, routers, robots, and inverters. The Chinese embassy in the U.S. stated that "it will take all necessary measures to respond to any actions that harm China's interests." The draft may still be modified or shelved.

Gilad Shainer, Senior Vice President of NVIDIA, announced at a recent technology forum that CPO has entered the mass production stage. The switches co-developed with the supply chain have begun delivery to closely collaborating customers and are being deployed in-house. It is expected that starting this year, switches equipped with CPO technology will be widely adopted in AI factories around the world.Shainer pointed out that the biggest opportunity in the future optical communication market lies in vertical scaling, which will require bandwidth efficiency more than ten times that of horizontal scaling. Previously, Shainer was responsible for R&D at Mellanox, and after the company was acquired by NVIDIA, he led the AI platform network transmission department and co-developed the COUPE silicon photonics packaging platform with TSMC. This announcement helps to dispel market concerns about the upgrade of optical communication specifications and boosts the operational outlook for related manufacturers.It is reported that NVIDIA has already implemented CPO on Spectrum-X, aiming to align with the upcoming large-scale deployment of the Vera Rubin AI platform (which has a computing speed at least three times faster than GB300). Trendforce estimates that the CPO/NPO market size will exceed $39 billion by 2030, with significant acceleration in growth momentum from 2028 to 2029 as optical interconnects are introduced with Scale-up.

According to the latest disclosure by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Musk has obtained antitrust approval for the acquisition of the optical network startup Mesh Optical Technologies, which means the FTC has completed a rapid antitrust review and will not challenge the transaction on competitive grounds, clearing a major regulatory hurdle for the advancement of the deal. However, it has not yet been disclosed whether the transaction has been signed or completed.Mesh was founded by former SpaceX engineers, and its core product is optical transceivers for AI data centers, which can improve energy efficiency, reduce latency, and enhance reliability compared to traditional network hardware, in order to meet the demand for millions of optical connections brought about by the growth of AI computing clusters. The founding team was involved in the development of the laser communication system for SpaceX's Starlink satellite network and plans to deploy optical communication technology into space in the future, adapting to the inter-satellite laser communication needs of orbital data centers and AI satellite networks. The company completed over $50 million in financing led by Thrive Capital in February of this year.Acquiring Mesh is one of SpaceX's initiatives to strengthen the competitiveness of large-scale computing clusters. Currently, SpaceX has listed AI computing power as a core business segment, and its xAI has been operating a total of approximately 1GW computing power with the Colossus and Colossus II training clusters, making it the first company to deploy coherent gigawatt-level AI training clusters; among them, Colossus II will add over 400MW of computing power and introduce over 220,000 GB300 chips. It has signed computing power cooperation agreements with Anthropic, Google, Reflection AI, and others, directly competing with large-scale cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. This year, SpaceX has also reached a Terafab chip manufacturing plan with Tesla and Intel, extending its vertical integration capabilities in chip design and manufacturing.In the past week, SpaceX's stock price ended its upward trend, closing at $153.23 per share, down over 32% from its peak of $225.64 per share.

The US stock market weakened overall due to geopolitical risks and a high-level correction in technology stocks, while the optical communication sector showed resilience against declines. According to CoinGlass data, Coherent (COHR) is currently priced at $360.06, with a daily increase of 1.21%, and the total contract open interest across the network reached $8.9669 million, with approximately $843,300 in contract open interest on the Gate platform, ranking third in the network. In addition, Lumentum (LITE) is currently priced at $865.82, with a daily increase of 5.86%, and the total contract open interest increased by 29.17%, with approximately $777,000 in contract open interest on the Gate platform, also ranking among the industry leaders.

According to Nikkei Asia, Japanese fiber optic cable manufacturer Fujikura announced that it will invest up to 300 billion yen (approximately 1.9 billion USD) in Japan and the United States, planning to triple its fiber optic cable production capacity to meet the strong demand brought about by the construction of artificial intelligence data centers.This investment is part of a series of actions by Japanese material companies in response to the Japan-U.S. Economic Cooperation Agreement and to accelerate their layout in the U.S. Meanwhile, several Japanese companies are also actively following up on investments related to AI infrastructure, including JX Advanced Materials expanding AI material production capacity and Japan promoting the construction of a domestic AI chip ecosystem.

NVIDIA announced strategic partnerships with photonics device manufacturers Lumentum and Coherent, each investing $2 billion, totaling $4 billion.Both investments are aimed at supporting each other's R&D, manufacturing capacity expansion, and operations in the United States, with Lumentum planning to build a new wafer fab. Both agreements are non-exclusive collaborations, including multi-billion dollar procurement commitments and future capacity rights for advanced laser and optical network products. According to market news, the stock prices of both photonics companies surged significantly after the announcement.

ChainCatcher news, based on the Uniswap DeFi protocol, Panoptic has raised $7 million in seed funding to help develop its decentralized trading platform for perpetual options. This round of financing was led by the European cryptocurrency investment firm Greenfield Capital, with participation from HashKey, gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC), L1D, Heartcore Capital, Comma3, and Zee Prime Capital.This funding will help Panoptic further develop the platform during the current beta testing phase before the launch on the Ethereum mainnet and the release of the V2 product.

ChainCatcher news, based on Uniswap, the DeFi protocol Panoptic announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed round financing. Gumi Cryptos Capital led the round, with participation from Uniswap Labs Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Jane Street, and the Avalanche Foundation's Blizzard Fund. The funds will be used to expand its team, establish the protocol, and audit its code.Panoptic was founded in July this year by Kristensen, former research lead at Advanced Blockchain AG, and Guillaume Lambert, a professor of applied physics at Cornell University. The first version of Panoptic will be based on Uniswap's automated market maker (AMM) and will gradually support other AMMs, with plans to launch its platform in the first quarter of next year. (The Block)