{"title":"Coherent vs Innolight: Optical & photonic interconnect compared","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/compare/coherent-vs-innolight","comparison":"Coherent ranks 19 on the AI Infra 100 with a score of 96; Innolight ranks 29 with 94. Coherent is ahead on progress. Level on deployment, production, commercials, technology, positioning, firepower and leverage. Coherent is based in Saxonburg, United States, Innolight in Suzhou, China. Coherent is named in 143 signals and Innolight in 10.","companies":[{"name":"Coherent","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/coherent","city":"Saxonburg","country":"United States","stage":null,"founded":null,"last_round":null,"positioning":"The largest optical transceiver and laser supplier to AI data centers (800G and 1.6T datacom, indium phosphide lasers, optical circuit switches, co-packaged optics), with Nvidia as a $2B strategic investor; indium phosphide capacity is the bottleneck it names.","assessed_in":{"domain":"AI Core","list":"AI Infra 100","rank":19,"score":96,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["firepower"],"leverage":10,"position":10,"progress":10,"firepower":10,"commercial":10,"deployment":10,"production":10,"technology":8},"why":"Coherent develops and manufactures optical transceivers, lasers, VCSELs, silicon-photonic products and optical circuit switches for AI data-center networks.","segment":"Optical & photonic interconnect","layer":"Networking & interconnect"},"signals_total":143,"facts_total":108},{"name":"Innolight","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/innolight","city":"Suzhou","country":"China","stage":null,"founded":null,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Innolight (Zhongji Innolight, SZSE 300308) is the largest optical transceiver maker in the world and the single most important name previously absent from the registry's interconnect coverage. FY2024 revenue RMB 23.86bn (up 122.6 percent), net profit RMB 5.17bn (up 137.9 percent); FY2025 revenue RMB 38.24bn (up 60.3 percent), net profit up 108.8 percent, transceiver gross margin rising 34.65 to 42.61 percent. Q1 2026 was extraordinary: revenue RMB 19.5bn (USD 2.9bn, up 192 percent), net profit RMB 5.7bn (USD 850m, up 262 percent) at a record 46 percent gross margin, that single quarter's profit exceeding all of 2024. Overseas revenue, predominantly North America, is above 86 percent. It shipped roughly 3 million 1.6T units in FY2025 for more than 50 percent global share and locked up around 70 percent of Lumentum's 12-million-unit EML chip capacity; about 35 percent of 800G shipments in 2026. The most diversified of the Chinese three: self-developed silicon photonics chips at 95 percent yield cutting costs 30 percent, 1.6T already shipping on silicon photonics, plus active NPO, CPO and optical circuit switching. Momentum is 4 rather than 5 because it was added to a Pentagon list, and CPO is a structural threat to the pluggable model even if large-scale replacement is seen as distant. Named customers NVIDIA, Google and Microsoft.","assessed_in":{"domain":"AI Core","list":"AI Infra 100","rank":29,"score":94,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["firepower"],"leverage":10,"position":10,"progress":8,"firepower":10,"commercial":10,"deployment":10,"production":10,"technology":8},"why":"Innolight develops and sells high-speed optical transceiver modules, including 800G and 1.6T, and silicon photonics chips for data-center and AI-cluster interconnects.","segment":"Optical & photonic interconnect","layer":"Networking & interconnect"},"signals_total":10,"facts_total":11}],"note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}