Intel sells silicon photonics line to Jabil
Contract manufacturer Jabil is to take over the manufacturing and sale of Intel’s silicon photonics pluggable optical transceiver modules.
It will also take over the development of future generations of such modules, marking a key step in the commercialisation of silicon photonics.
Jabil already has a photonics business unit with component design, system assembly, and streamlined supply chain management and the terms of the deal were not disclosed. Intel is at pains to point out that it is not exiting the silicon photonics business, just this product line. This compares to Intel selling its NUC mini PC line to Asus earlier this year.
“Our Design-to-Dust capabilities continue to resonate with customers and we are investing in the areas of data center infrastructure services, liquid cooling, and silicon photonics to help our customers solve their challenges. Jabil is extremely well positioned to support customers as they incorporate innovative technologies into their data centres to navigate the increasing requirements around power and cooling being driven by artificial intelligence,” said Matt Crowley, Senior Vice President of Cloud and Enterprise Infrastructure at Jabil.
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“This deal better positions Jabil to cater to the needs of our valued customers in the data centre industry, including hyperscale, next-wave clouds, and AI cloud data centres,” he said.
“These complex environments present unique challenges, and we are committed to tackling them head-on and delivering innovative solutions to support the evolving demands of the data centre ecosystem. This deal enables Jabil to expand its presence in the value chain.”
“We are pleased to reach this agreement with a world-class supplier like Jabil. We look forward to working closely with Jabil, our customers, and our suppliers to enable a seamless transition as Intel shifts its focus to silicon photonics components for existing markets and emerging applications,” said Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Intel.
“In addition, in Q3, we decided to divest the pluggable module portion of our silicon photonics business, allowing us to focus on the higher-value component business and optical I/O solutions to enable AI infrastructure scaling,” said Pat Gelsinger, cCEO of Intel.
“This marks the 10th business we have exited in the last two-and-a-half years, generating $1.8bn in annual savings and a testament to our efforts to optimize our portfolio and drive long-term value creation.”
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Jabil has over 250,000 employees across 100 locations in 30 countries, with 26 operating in Europe including an optoelectronics manufacturing plant in Jena, Austria.
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