This article breaks down the co-packaged optics supply chain from first principles.

The piece explains why CPO demand can become exponential, how the ramp likely unfolds across scale-out, inter-rack scale-up, and intra-rack scale-up phases, and why the bottlenecks are physical rather than software-like. It walks through the key layers of the stack — InP substrates, epitaxy, high-power CW lasers, silicon photonics engines, SOI wafers, and advanced packaging — while mapping the relevant public companies across AXTI, Aixtron, Lumentum, Coherent, Soitec, Tower Semi, and TSMC.

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