In December 2025, American semiconductor and technology giant Marvell acquired Celestial AI in a deal worth US$3.25bn. This is part of a flurry of activity in the wider photonics space, with NVIDIA investing $2bn each in Coherent and Lumentum, and IDTechEx's recent industry and technology report - "Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits 2026-2036: Technologies, Markets, and Forecasts" - indicates that 2026 is seeing explosive growth in the photonics industry driven primarily by AI interconnect demands.

The rise in demand for data center usage in line with increasing high-performance computing and AI applications can create negative environmental effects. This article covers solutions to increasing sustainability surrounding data centers, and battery storage technologies that can remove some reliance on energy from fossil fuels.

Join IDTechEx Technology Analyst Matthew Fall on Thursday 21 May for this expert-led webinar, "The 1MW Rack Challenge: Redesigning Data Center Power Delivery for the AI Era". Choose your preferred time zone - the webinar runs three times in one day.

The world of vehicle autonomy is made possible with intelligent sensing and radar capabilities that can improve the safety of cars and make for smoother journeys. This article covers the various components of autonomous vehicles, including in-cabin sensing, software and the integration of AI, and radar technology.

In this brief video IDTechEx analyst Matthew Fall assesses Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor materials, which are used for power electronics in data centers, renewables and electric vehicles.

Helium is a finite resource and critical for several applications, including semiconductor manufacturing. With Qatar producing a third of the world's helium supply, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East has created a major supply chain bottleneck for industries critically reliant on helium. This article from IDTechEx looks at the critical role of helium in the semiconductor industry, Qatar's position in the helium supply chain, and what this means for semiconductor manufacturing. The article also discusses alternatives for helium supply and potential mitigation strategies.

Join IDTechEx Technology Analyst Shihao Fu on Thursday 30th April for the expert-led webinar, "Humanoid Robots in Industry: Market Readiness, ROI, and 10-Year Outlook". Choose your preferred time zone - the webinar runs three times in one day.

IDTechEx forecasts the power electronics market to exceed US$65 billion by 2036, with EVs and data center power electronics taking up significant market share. Across the power electronics industry, the commercialization of wide bandgap semiconductors SiC and GaN enable increased efficiency and power density. The demands of the EV, data center, and renewables industries differ significantly, resulting in different rates of technological innovation across the power electronics landscape. By understanding how different power electronics applications relate to each other, IDTechEx offers a unique, cross-application insight into the power electronics industry as a whole.

Join IDTechEx Senior Technology Analyst Mika Takahashi on Thursday 23rd April for the expert-led webinar, "Photonic Integrated Circuits, Driving an Interconnect Revolution". Choose your preferred time zone - the webinar runs three times in one day.

As economies worldwide are growing exponentially, there is increasing pressure on many of the major sectors to keep up with global trends. This article covers the need for new thermal management technologies alongside the growing demand for vehicle electrification high performance computing.

Modern AI and high-performance computing workloads require tremendous amounts of information to be transmitted at enormous speeds between chips, servers, and racks. Traditionally, this has been done with copper wiring over longer distances, but the current generation of architectures has been pushing the physical limits of what copper can achieve, and the industry has been facing a so-called 'interconnect bottleneck'. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are an emerging class of integrated circuit that seek to break this bottleneck.

IDTechEx's latest report, titled "Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits 2026-2036: Technologies, Markets, and Forecasts", offers an in-depth assessment of the latest advancements in PIC technologies. The report comprehensively analyses the key technologies and components including modulators, light sources, waveguides, and material platforms for photonics, as well as assessing the supply chain, market dynamics, and end-use applications.

In this article, IDTechEx Senior Technology Analyst Noah El Alami investigates how quantum technologies are driving interest into new material platforms for photonic integrated circuits (PICs).

The emergence of 5G and 6G telecommunications, along with the rise of data center demand and advanced automotive radar systems, is presenting a need for low-loss materials to optimize transmission. This article explores how low-loss materials can prevent transmission losses associated with higher sensitivities and frequencies.

An overview of the opportunities for materials in quantum computing, quantum sensing and quantum communications.

Join IDTechEx Principal Technology Analyst Yu-Han Chang on Thursday 26th March for the expert-led webinar, "AI Chips at the Edge of Success". Choose your preferred time zone - the webinar runs three times in one day.

Short-duration battery technologies such as Li-ion and valve-regulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries are typically used in data centers as part of uninterruptible power supply systems (UPS). Data center operators also sign power purchase agreements (PPAs) to secure long-term, stable renewable energy at fixed prices, shielding them from price volatility. However, key shifts in both the energy storage technologies adopted and the long-term methods for power procurement for data centers may evolve over time. This article from IDTechEx covers shifts in the technologies adopted and business strategies data center operators may embrace over the coming years.

A complimentary collection of insights written by IDTechEx industry experts, covering key technology innovation trends shaping the next decade.

IDTechEx analyst Dr Yu-Han Chang covers the progress and adoption of optical transceivers in high-end data centers.

Co-packaged optics (CPO) is gaining significant attention as the next architecture for next-generation switching. The shift toward co-packaged optics is also reshaping competitive positioning among semiconductor vendors. This article examines the differing approaches of NVIDIA and Broadcom, with further detail available in IDTechEx's latest report, "Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) 2026-2036: Technologies, Market, and Forecasts".