From copper’s limits to optical breakthroughs, a new consortium, OCI-MSA, led by AMD, Broadcom, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA and OpenAI, sets standards for scalable AI interconnects.
A new global industry consortium, The Optical Compute Interconnect (OCI) Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) was announced on 13 March 2026.
Led by founding members AMD, Broadcom, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA and OpenAI, it has been established to create an open specification for optical scale-up interconnects to support the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
The group intends to replace copper-based connectivity, which is reaching physical limits in large-scale AI clusters, with optical solutions designed to improve bandwidth, scalability and energy efficiency.
The specification, available at oci-msa.org, combines non-return-to-zero modulation with wavelength-division multiplexing, shifting the focus from module-centric to silicon-centric architectures.
Commenting on the matter, Brian Amick, Senior Vice President at AMD, said, “The growing need for optical scale-up interconnect to support large AI systems later this decade is clear. AMD is a strong supporter of the OCI MSA as it establishes an open specification for the industry.”
Broadcom’s Near Margalit highlighted the flexibility of the approach: “The OCI-MSA allows for seamless integration with existing electrical SerDes-based ASICs while providing a clear path to direct ASIC integration.”
Furthermore, the roadmap includes standardised high-density interfaces, beginning with OCI GEN1 at 200Gbps per direction and GEN2 bidirectional technology at 400Gbps, scaling to 3.2Tbps per fibre.
It also supports multiple optical form factors, including pluggable, on-board and co-packaged optics.
Meta’s Dan Rabinovitsj emphasised the urgency; saying, “The appetite for technology to address the power and cost constraints impacting AI cluster design is real and imminent.”
Microsoft’s Saurabh Dighe added that the specification sets the stage for open standards and architectural innovation, while NVIDIA’s Gilad Shainer said it would deliver the scale required for “the next era of super-intelligence.”
OpenAI’s Richard Ho concluded: “The OCI MSA will be critical to allow the industry to build the AI systems that will get us to AGI.”
