News: Optoelectronics
3 September 2026
Sivers investing $30m to boost Glasgow InP CW DFB laser manufacturing capacity to over 100 million annually
Sivers Semiconductors AB of Kista, Sweden (which supplies RF beam-former ICs and lasers for AI data-center, SATCOM, defense and telecom applications) has announced a $30m strategic investment to significantly expand its indium phosphide (InP) manufacturing facility in Glasgow, Scotland, UK as it prepares for anticipated customer production ramps driven by growing AI data-center and optical networking demand.
The expanded facility is expected to support annual production of more than 100 million continuous wave (CW) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, while adding new process capabilities, increased automation and greater manufacturing flexibility. The expansion program will begin in second-half 2026 and is expected to become operational in fourth-quarter 2027.
The investment marks an important step in Sivers’ transition from a fab-lite manufacturing model to a hybrid manufacturing strategy, combining expanded in-house manufacturing capabilities with strategic foundry, packaging and manufacturing partners.
“The scale of today’s AI infrastructure build-out is creating unprecedented demand across the optical supply chain,” says Sivers Semiconductors’ president & CEO Vickram Vathulya. “Our customers need significantly more laser production capacity and, just as importantly, the confidence that supply will be there when their programs ramp. This investment positions us, along with our foundry partners, to meet that demand.”
As hyperscale operators build larger AI clusters and move toward higher-speed networking architectures, demand for advanced optical interconnect technologies is accelerating. Sivers believes that InP-based lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) will play an increasingly important role in enabling the high-performance, energy-efficient optical connectivity required by these systems.
The investment reflects increasing customer engagement across AI data-center and advanced optical interconnect applications and is designed to ensure that manufacturing capacity is available as customer programs advance toward volume production.
“Scaling photonics for AI infrastructure requires more than increasing capacity. It requires a manufacturing strategy built for flexibility, quality and long-term customer demand,” says chief operating officer Neeraj Chopra. “By combining our planned expansion in Glasgow with the manufacturing capacity of our external foundry partners, we can scale efficiently while maintaining the supply flexibility our customers need. This approach gives Sivers the ability to support high-volume production as AI infrastructure deployments accelerate.”
The Glasgow expansion will complement Sivers’ broader manufacturing ecosystem, including foundry, packaging and manufacturing partners in Asia. This hybrid manufacturing approach is designed to provide greater production scalability, geographic flexibility and supply chain resilience while maintaining strategic in-house manufacturing capabilities for Sivers’ core photonics technologies.
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