AI workloads are driving rapid growth in data-center scale and network complexity, increasing demand for advanced optical interconnects. Industry forecasts project AI back-end network switch spending will exceed $100 billion by 2030, highlighting the significant market opportunity for Tower Semiconductor’s OCS solutions. Tower Semiconductor has entered a collaboration with Salience Labs to manufacture Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) based Optical Circuit Switches (OCS) designed for next-generation AI data centers. The partnership advances from development into a pre-production phase, marking a key milestone toward mass deployment of optical switching solutions. The joint effort leverages Tower’s high-volume silicon photonics platforms, including the PH18DA process with integrated III-V lasers and the TPS45PH process featuring low-loss nitride waveguides. These platforms aim to deliver ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth, and lower energy-per-bit connectivity compared with traditional electronic packet switching.