From 400G to Terabit speeds: how the AI boom is creating a “generational phenomenon” in optical networks
(April 2025) The sudden explosion of artificial intelligence has placed growing demands on broadband networks. That has sparked a new round of investment in optical networks, one that analyst Ian Redpath of Omdia calls “a generational phenomenon.”
“AI, data centers, campuses – they used to involve US$1 billion dollar investments,” Redpath tells Huawei Editor-in-Chief Gavin Allen in this Transform Talks interview. “Now, we're hearing of US$10 billion dollar investments in these large purpose-built campuses for AI applications. That, in turn, is driving a massive uptick in connectivity.”
Redpath says that throughput will surge from speeds of about 400 Gbps today to 800 Gbps. From there, we’ll likely see “terabit types of bandwidth in the future.”
This is partly because of the growing need for data centers to absorb huge datasets for AI and machine learning. “Larger enterprises, corporate HQs where they have private data centers, they'll step up to 100 gig type of capacity on the access,” Redpath says. He notes that, “if you've got a lot of 100 gig coming into the edge, that network in the middle has to upgrade” as well.
All of this will mean plenty of opportunity for carriers to come in and serve different bandwidth requirements for enterprises and cloud applications.
