POET Technologies heads to CIOE 2026 to showcase AI optical tech
POET Technologies (NASDAQ: POET) will exhibit at the 2026 China International Optoelectronic Expo (CIOE) in Shenzhen from 9 to 11 September, the Toronto-based photonic integrated circuit designer announced on 4 September. The appearance is preceded by a speaking slot at the co-located Infostone Optical Communication and Market Technology Conference (IFOC) on 8 September, where Dr Mo Jinyu, the company's Senior Vice President of Global Product Development, will address delegates on high-power and multi-wavelength laser light sources for co-packaged optics (CPO), AI and ML interconnects.
Chairman and chief executive Suresh Venkatesan said the events would give POET an opportunity to update customers and prospects on manufacturing progress and to discuss its wafer-level chip-scale packaging technology. The company said a growing number of industry participants view that approach as a viable route to low-cost, high-power optical interconnects, though no specific customer names or contract details were provided in the release.
Technology positioning
POET's core product platform centres on its Optical Interposer, a patented wafer-level integration architecture that combines electronic and photonic devices on a single chip. The company claims the approach yields lower cost, smaller form factor and reduced power consumption compared with conventional optical module assembly. Current product lines span 800G and 1.6T optical engines for AI clusters and hyperscale data centres, as well as novel light sources designed for chip-to-chip communication within and between AI servers.
The CPO market, which POET is targeting alongside its module business, is attracting significant attention as AI cluster builders look for alternatives to pluggable transceivers that can reduce power draw and signal latency at scale. Hyperscalers running large GPU clusters are under pressure to cut per-bit energy costs, and CPO integration places the optical engine directly on or adjacent to the switch or accelerator die, removing copper interconnect losses.
Market context
The optical interconnect space serving AI data centres has become a busy competitive arena. Established component vendors, merchant silicon suppliers adding integrated photonics and a cohort of pure-play PIC startups are all pursuing variants of similar co-packaging and light-source integration strategies. Differentiation increasingly rests on yield at volume production, packaging cost and the ability to qualify into hyperscaler supply chains, all of which require sustained manufacturing investment over multiple years.
POET's operations span Toronto, Singapore, Penang and Shenzhen, giving the company proximity to Asian optical manufacturing ecosystems. The Shenzhen presence makes CIOE a natural venue; the show draws more than 3,800 exhibitors from over 30 countries and expects upwards of 240,000 professional visitors across its run. For POET, the primary audience is likely procurement engineers and technical leads at Chinese and pan-Asian telecoms equipment makers and data centre operators, segments not always reachable through North American trade events.
The release contains no new financial disclosures, product launch announcements or customer wins. Its news value rests on POET's public positioning ahead of what is one of the largest annual gatherings in photonics.