Lumentum announced a collaboration with Qualcomm and Corning to demonstrate a high-density die-to-die optical interconnect for AI rack scale-up architectures at ECOC 2026 in Spain. The board-level system combines Qualcomm’s die-to-die interface IP subsystem, Lumentum’s vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser platform and Corning’s multimode fiber connectivity, supporting potential future co-packaged optics and near-packaged optics applications, including emerging UCIe standards. Lumentum said its advanced-packaged 1060nm VCSEL optical engine offers combined transmit and receive capacity of approximately 10 Tb/s. The companies said the massively parallel architecture can extend low-latency, low-power optical die-to-die links across tens of meters as electrical interconnects face rising bandwidth-density and energy constraints in AI systems. Lumentum shares rose 2.53% to $954.49 on the 21st, while Corning gained 5.89% to $158.98. Applied Optoelectronics rose 3.33%, POET Technologies advanced 7.82%, and AXT climbed 14.14% to $79.93 after joining the S&P SmallCap 600 effective September 21.