Tower Semiconductor and Semtech Corporation have expanded a multi-year agreement that secures dedicated silicon germanium (SiGe) capacity for Semtech's AI data center optical interconnect components.
The companies describe power as AI's next constraint, with a growing share of power spent moving data rather than computing it. As AI clusters scale, the energy cost of moving each bit is becoming central to how much useful work each accelerator can deliver. The release says each step in the speed roadmap, from 800G to 1.6T and on to 3.2T, raises requirements for bandwidth, reach and power per bit.
Key elements of Semtech's signal integrity portfolio include transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), modulator and laser drivers, and linear equalizers; the portfolio serves fully retimed optics (FRO), linear pluggable optics (LPO), linear receive optics (LRO), near-packaged optics (NPO), eXtra-dense pluggable optics (XPO), linear equalizers on PCB, and active copper cables (ACC). The products are built on Tower's SiGe process technology and address copper links within the rack and optical links across the data center.
Semtech's 224 Gbps per Lane TIA Family for Linear Pluggable Optics, built on Tower's SiGe technology, received the Optical Component Innovation (Chip/Wafer) award at the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) 2026. The companies are also working on a joint technology roadmap for multi-generational AI data center interconnects.
Semtech President and Chief Executive Officer Hong Hou said the agreement secures dedicated SiGe capacity across three regions to support growth in copper and optical interconnects, from 800G and 1.6T through 3.2T and beyond.
The secured capacity spans Tower's fabs in the United States, Israel and Japan. The agreement builds on current production and provides Semtech additional supply assurance as demand for its SiGe-based products is expected to grow across customer programs and end markets.
