AMSTERDAM, Feb 20 – STMicroelectronics (ST) announced Thursday the launch of a novel computer chip designed for the rapidly growing market of AI data center equipment. The chip was developed in collaboration with Amazon’s web services arm, AWS.
With leading U.S. software firms planning to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure as part of the Stargate venture, demand is escalating not only for specialized computing chips such as those made by Nvidia, but also for chips utilized in memory, power, and communications applications.
ST is focusing on the communications market with a photonics chip. This chip leverages light instead of electricity to enhance speed and decrease power consumption in converters known as transceivers. Advanced AI data centers need hundreds of thousands of these transceivers.
“We have signed a collaboration agreement with AWS, which has been intimately involved in the development… and which will deploy this technology in their infrastructure as it reaches production stage later this year,” said Vincent Fraisse, general manager at the company’s radio and communications chip division, during a presentation for journalists.
Fraisse further stated, “We also have an ongoing collaboration with the leading provider of optical solutions, the market leader in pluggable optical transceivers, for them to use (the chip) in their next generation… transceivers,” without disclosing the company’s name.
Key transceiver manufacturers include Coherent and Cisco from the United States, as well as Innolight and Accelink from China.
According to the research firm LightCounting, the market for these devices totaled $7 billion in 2024, and it is projected to increase fourfold, reaching $24 billion by 2030.
ST will begin mass production of these chips at its facility in Crolles, France.
