Welcome & Kickoff Address

Author: Richard Pitwon, Seagate / Resolute Photonics Collection: 2026 OCP EMEA Summit - Photonics

Summary

This kickoff address by Richard Pitwon (Seagate / Resolute Photonics), serving as session host, opens the OCP EMEA Summit 2026 Photonics track in Barcelona on 29–30 April 2026. The address frames the strategic context for the full day's programme: photonics and optics are not merely a communications technology but a pervasive enabler touching every layer of the AI data center — interconnect, storage (magnetic recording transceivers), and compute acceleration. Pitwon highlights Spain's pivotal role in the European photonics ecosystem before introducing each speaker in sequence, framing the session around three thematic clusters: "Optics for Hyperscale AI Gigafactories" (silicon photonics switching, optical interconnect for AI pods, gigawatt-scale AI factories), "Optical Transceivers" (European pluggable sovereignty via ESTEL, PICs for quantum and AI via PICs for Europe/ICFO, high-speed VCSELs via Furukawa, and wafer-scale silicon photonics via imec), and "Optical Computing" (IBM's Bert Offrein on photonic technologies for future systems).

The session culminates in a panel titled "Scaling AI Networks: Incremental Innovation or Photonic Disruption?" moderated by Roy Rubenstein (LightCounting) with panelists Jeremy Witzens (Astera Labs), Chris Collins (Credo), Prof. Nicola Calabretta (TU Eindhoven / Astrea Networks), and Paul Wallace (Oriole Networks). Pitwon explicitly frames this as a structured debate between established switching architectures (Astera Labs, Credo) and disruptive wavelength-division-multiplexing-based switching approaches (Oriole Networks, Astrea Networks). The PICs for Europe initiative — a €400 million photonic chip pilot line for European technological sovereignty — receives particular emphasis, as does the 1,060 nm VCSEL work from Furukawa.