Photonics
Redundancy· Photonics · Link

TSMC COUPE (co-packaged optics), Hsinchu

Hsinchu, Taiwan24.81°N 120.99°E
computed criticality12/100
reading
First COUPE optical engines shipped with Nvidia (2025-2026)
2025
Fault line

Co-packaged optics moves the transceiver from the switch faceplate to the processor substrate, potentially bypassing the Chinese assemblers of pluggable modules. But it re-concentrates the chain on TSMC and its SoIC-X packaging: the dependence changes address, not nature.

Actors
TSMC (Hsinchu)
Nvidia (Santa Clara)
Broadcom (Palo Alto)
Depends on 1
US Conec, Hickory, NCPhotonics · Critical anchor
Feeds 1
Nvidia, Santa ClaraCompute
Sources