Supply chain / Optics
Indium phosphide laser supply for optical modules
Lasers for 800G and 1.6T optical modules depend on indium phosphide substrates, and trade press reports that supply of them is tight.
- Type
- Reported constraint
- Where it sits
- If lasers are scarce, optical transceivers for GPU clusters can be delayed, which can hold up cluster build-outs even when GPUs are in stock.
- Constraint
- TrendForce (trade press, 6 August 2026) reports that analysts expect the supply imbalance to last beyond 2027 and that China accounts for about 70 per cent of refined indium, with export controls tightened since 2025.
What we checked
- It is reported that Lumentum's chief executive said the indium phosphide supply gap has passed that of DRAM and NAND. (source)
- An analyst summary of Coherent's results reports that laser capacity, not assembly or test, limits its output, and that it plans to double indium phosphide output. (source)
Written by ComputeFinder from public pages on 2 October 2026. Company statements are the company's own, not independently checked, and reported items are marked as such. Not yet reviewed line by line by a second person. If something is wrong, tell us.