How data centre infrastructure keeps pace with AI.
One chip. Replacing dozens of lasers.
AI's compute is scaling. Its networks are not. The binding constraint is the optical interconnect, and inside that, the light source. Microcomb is the light source built to close the gap.
Using a single soliton crystal microcomb chip as the light source, we are demonstrating coherent transmission at 12.8 to 25.6 Tb/s across 32 to 64 channels, against 0.8 Tb/s per deployed 800ZR plug today. Same physics. Radically different architecture.
The same architecture set the world record for data through a single optical chip, 44.2 Tb/s, and the hero numbers are already past Nvidia's stated bar for next-generation AI infrastructure.
The AI compute buildout is the largest infrastructure investment in history, a multi-trillion dollar race through 2030. Every operation moves as data, and data moves as light. The binding constraint is no longer compute: it is the optical interconnect that feeds it, and inside that, the light source. Today's interconnects need a dedicated laser for every wavelength channel. At the bandwidth AI demands, that means unsustainable cost, complexity and power.
The industry knows it. Nvidia's next-generation platform lists an external laser source as a structural requirement, and in March 2026 Nvidia committed US$4 billion to laser suppliers to secure it. Incumbents fill that socket with dozens of discrete lasers. We fill it with one chip.
Bandwidth >10 Tb/s · Latency <500 ns rack-local · Energy <1 pJ/bit
Microcomb is co-founded by the scientists who have spent a decade producing the world's leading body of work on microcomb technology, and a commercial team translating that science into infrastructure.
Distinguished Professor and Director of the Optical Sciences Centre at Swinburne University of Technology. Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science (COMBS). One of the world's foremost authorities on microcomb technology, with a publication record spanning hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and an h-index of 143. His research group has defined the global state of the art in soliton crystal microcombs.
Associate Professor at Monash University and founder of the Monash Photonic Communications Laboratory. ARC Future Fellow (2023–2027) and co-lead of the Information and Intelligence Theme at the ARC Centre of Excellence COMBS. His research focuses on using microcombs to support tens of terabits-per-second in optical fibre links. Lead author on the landmark 2020 Nature Communications paper demonstrating 44.2 Tb/s data transmission over 75km of standard optical fibre using a single soliton crystal microcomb: world record level performance.
Professor at RMIT University's School of Engineering and a leading authority in integrated photonics and silicon photonic platforms. Co-author on Microcomb's foundational Nature Photonics review paper alongside David Moss and Bill Corcoran. Professor Mitchell brings deep expertise in photonic integration and industry engagement, including connections to major optical networking and data centre infrastructure players.
Leads the commercial build through Swinburne's Founder-in-Residence program. Previously scaled and exited a PE-backed company as CEO of Render Networks, a digital infrastructure platform.
Our microcomb generates 80 equally spaced, mutually coherent wavelength channels from a single integrated chip. No array of individual lasers. One laser in, 12.8 Tb/s out, against 0.8 Tb/s per deployed 800ZR plug today.
Nvidia's published next-generation requirement is more than 10 Tb/s at under 500 ns and under 1 pJ/bit. Our hero numbers clear it, using coherent optical transmission: the modulation architecture already standard between data centres, now moving within them.
Today's architectures burn 5 to 20+ pJ/bit and scale worse as bandwidth increases. Around 50% of our pump light converts into the comb, measured on our devices: more optical power per channel, less heat in the package, and a structural contributor to sub-1 pJ/bit operation. Bandwidth and energy solved simultaneously, in one chip.
Like ARM for silicon, Microcomb owns the foundational layer. Our soliton crystal microcombs are best-in-class on reliability, stability, robustness and efficiency. The industry builds on top of this IP to break the interconnect bottleneck, and we hold the foundation.
One soliton crystal microcomb chip as the optical source. Coherent C-band, 12.8 to 25.6 Tb/s across 32 to 64 channels, built to the 1.6T ZR+ roadmap. Benchmarked on throughput, latency, OSNR and energy per bit, and shaped with OEM and hyperscaler teams against their acceptance criteria. The science is established. This is the demonstration that changes the infrastructure conversation.
A decade of published research, hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and a national centre of excellence, now entering its commercial phase. This architecture set the world record for data through a single optical chip: 44.2 Tb/s, Nature Communications 2020. It is precisely what we are commercialising.
Most integrated combs build on single-soliton designs, which convert roughly 1 to 4% of pump light into the comb. Soliton crystals convert around 50%, measured on our devices, with uniform linewidth across every line as a property of the state, not a tuning achievement. In Professor Moss's own words: the best in the world.
Beyond the microcomb source, we hold intellectual property on our modulation approach, a second defensible layer. The combination creates a technology moat that cannot be readily replicated, even by well-equipped competitors.
This is not a laboratory curiosity. The customer-spec demo targets the coherent interconnect requirements of next-generation AI data centres, against the 1.6T ZR+ roadmap, benchmarked on throughput, latency, OSNR and energy per bit.
Three leading universities, the ARC COMBS Centre of Excellence and Breakthrough Victoria behind one company.
Home of the Optical Sciences Centre and the founding research group. Microcomb Pty Ltd was incorporated in June 2026, born from Swinburne Innovation & Enterprise's Founder-in-Residence programme at the Swinburne Innovation Studio in Hawthorn, Melbourne.
Home of the Monash Photonic Communications Laboratory, led by Dr. Bill Corcoran. Site of the landmark 44.2 Tb/s world-record transmission demonstration using a single soliton crystal microcomb chip, published in Nature Communications, 2020.
Home of the Integrated Photonics and Applications Centre (InPAC), led by Prof. Arnan Mitchell. Deep expertise in photonic integration and silicon photonic platforms: the engineering foundation for moving from customer-spec demo to manufacturable chip.
A multi-year Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence (2023–2030). One of the world's most significant dedicated investments in microcomb science, and the national research programme underpinning Microcomb's technology, spanning Swinburne, Monash and RMIT.
Pre-seed investment through the Breakthrough Victoria University Innovation Platform, closed June 2026; part of a broader Swinburne and Breakthrough Victoria partnership supporting deep technology commercialisation from Victorian universities.
June 2026. Microcomb Pty Ltd incorporated. Breakthrough Victoria pre-seed closed through the University Innovation Platform.
March 2026. OFC 2026, Los Angeles: demo spec conversations opened with OEM and transceiver teams.
The record stands. 44.2 Tb/s through a single optical chip, Nature Communications 2020, still the benchmark we are commercialising.
Incorporated, funded and in build. We are setting the customer-spec demo with OEM and hyperscaler teams now: shape the spec to your acceptance criteria and evaluate first data. We are speaking with the people building and funding what comes next.