As silicon photonics emerges as a crucial technology in the AI era, semiconductor giants like Intel and TSMC have already entered the arena. Now, another tech titan is joining the race: U.S. chip giant AMD is reportedly seeking silicon photonics partners in Taiwan, according to United Daily News.

The report indicates that AMD has reached out to Taiwanese companies BE Epitaxy Semiconductor and Best Epitaxy Manufacturing Company. BE Epitaxy focuses on designing and developing silicon photonics platforms, while Best Epitaxy specializes in producing 4-inch and 6-inch epitaxy wafers using MOCVD machines.

While AMD declined to comment on the rumors, the company recently announced a USD 4.9 billion acquisition of server manufacturer ZT Systems to bolster its AI data center infrastructure, aiming to enhance system-level R&D capabilities. AMD’s interest in silicon photonics suggests it is positioning itself in this critical future technology.

Earlier in July, AMD was also reported to be establishing a research and development center in Taiwan, focusing on silicon photonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and heterogeneous integration.

Silicon photonics is increasingly important as chipmakers push the limits of Moore's Law, leading to greater transistor density. This creates signal loss issues during transmission, as chips rely on electrical signals. Silicon photonics overcomes this by using optical signals for high-speed data transmission, offering higher bandwidth and faster data processing.

On September 3, over 30 companies, including TSMC, formed the Silicon Photonics Industry Alliance (SiPhIA) at SEMICON. TSMC and its supply chain are accelerating the development of next-gen silicon photonics solutions, aiming for production readiness within three to five years, according to Nikkei.

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AMD's rival, NVIDIA, is also collaborating with TSMC to develop optical channel and IC interconnect technologies. Meanwhile, Intel, with over 30 years of silicon photonics development, has shipped over 8 million photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and 3.2 million on-chip lasers since launching its silicon photonics platform in 2016. These products are widely used by major cloud service providers.

Intel has also been working with Taiwanese companies in this space, including LandMark Optoelectronics, which supplies Intel with essential silicon photonics materials like epitaxial layers.

As the demand for high-performance semiconductors grows, silicon photonics is set to play a vital role in shaping the future of data transmission and processing.