AMD Taps GlobalFoundries for MI500’s Co-Packaged Optics as the Silicon Photonics Race With NVIDIA Heats Up

AMD is reportedly working with GlobalFoundries on an MRM-based co-packaged optics solution for its next-gen Instinct MI500 AI accelerator.

The photonic integrated circuits would be made by GlobalFoundries, with packaging handled by ASE.

MI500 is expected to use TSMC’s 2nm process, CDNA 6 architecture, and HBM4E memory, with a 2027 launch target.

Co-packaged optics can boost bandwidth and latency while reducing reliance on copper interconnects, making it a key AI hardware battleground.