Co Packaged Optics

Overview

Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) is a technology that integrates optical transceivers directly into the switch ASIC package, eliminating thousands of pluggable transceiver modules. By placing optics adjacent to the switching silicon, CPO reduces power consumption, dramatically improves reliability, and enables higher port density. As switch ASICs progress from 1,500W today toward 6,000W in future generations, CPO combined with liquid cooling becomes the only viable approach for high-radix AI networking switches.

The technology has moved from lab concept to hyperscaler-proven deployment, with Micas Networks reporting 4 million+ hours of CPO switch operation without a single port flapping event. The MPC-to-CPC-to-CPO transition follows bandwidth thresholds: pluggable optics work up to ~10 Tbps, co-packaged copper (CPC) for higher throughput, and CPO becomes necessary above ~60 Tbps. The OCI MSA, co-founded in March 2026 by AMD, Broadcom, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Meta, and OpenAI, is standardizing CPO interfaces for multi-rack scale-up deployments.