Tech Giants Collaborate to Standardize AI Optical Interconnects
A new consortium including AMD, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Microsoft, Broadcom and Meta has formed to establish open standards for optical infrastructure used in artificial intelligence, according to recent announcements. The collaboration, known as the Optical Scale-up Consortium (OCI), aims to standardize AI optical interconnects.
The move comes as demand for high-bandwidth, low-latency data transfer increases with the rapid development of AI models. Optical interconnects are becoming crucial for efficiently connecting the processors and memory within AI systems.
On October 6, 2025, AMD and OpenAI announced a strategic partnership that included a warrant for OpenAI to purchase up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock. This agreement underscores the growing relationship between the two companies as they work to advance AI technology. Details of the partnership are available on OpenAI’s website.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed surprise at AMD’s willingness to offer 10% of its company to OpenAI as part of the deal. “It’s imaginative, it’s unique and surprising, considering they were so excited about their next-generation product,” Huang said in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on October 8, 2025. “I’m surprised that they would deliver away 10% of the company before they even built it. And so anyhow, it’s clever, I guess.” CNBC reported on Huang’s comments.
The AMD-OpenAI deal involves OpenAI committing to purchase 6 gigawatts worth of chips over multiple years, including the forthcoming MI450 series. AMD shares have seen significant gains since the announcement, rising 43% in the week following the initial release.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is also evaluating alternatives to Nvidia chips, according to sources cited in a Reuters report from February 3, 2026. Reuters details the company’s search for alternative chip suppliers. The report notes that Nvidia and AMD GPU technology relies on external memory, which can slow processing times.
The formation of the OCI consortium and the AMD-OpenAI partnership signal a broader industry effort to address the infrastructure challenges posed by increasingly complex AI workloads. Standardizing optical interconnects could accelerate innovation and reduce costs in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
