Tower Semiconductor and Nvidia partner on 1.6T silicon photonics for AI data centers

Tower Semiconductor and NVIDIA are teaming up to scale next-generation AI infrastructure with 1.6T optical modules for data centers. The collaboration centers on Tower’s advanced silicon photonics platform, designed to meet the growing bandwidth and performance demands of large-scale AI deployments. Tower Semiconductor further announced that its silicon photonics (SiPho) technology will be used in 1.6T data center optical modules designed for NVIDIA networking protocols.

As part of the deal announced on Feb. 5, Tower will scale AI infrastructure deployments with 1.6T data center optical modules optimized for NVIDIA’s networking protocols, potentially doubling data rates and addressing one of the most critical bottlenecks in AI-driven computing, high-speed interconnectivity.

The announcement resulted in a sharp rally in TSEM shares, reflecting heightened investor appetite for companies positioned at the intersection of AI, data center growth, and advanced semiconductor technology.

“Tower Semiconductor is proud to deliver advanced, high-speed technologies that support demanding data center and AI requirements,” said Russell Ellwanger, CEO of Tower Semiconductor. “We continue to invest significantly across our SiGe and silicon photonics platforms to support the ecosystem with industry-leading performance, scalability, and manufacturability, enabling customers to advance next-generation data center architectures.”

From NVIDIA’s perspective, the collaboration is part of a broader push to build scalable, energy-efficient networking for AI at scale. Optical links are seen as essential to connect thousands of processors with minimal latency and power consumption.

“The exponential growth of AI is driving the need for a new class of high-speed, scalable networking to connect AI infrastructure,” said Gilad Shainer, Senior Vice President, Networking, NVIDIA. “NVIDIA is collaborating with Tower Semiconductor to advance the ecosystem, enabling more efficient AI infrastructure through next-generation silicon photonics and accelerating AI applications at scale.”