Coherent says it will keep all its data-center lasers for itself as internal demand eats 100% of output
Novel-Lifeguard6491 · reddit · 2026-08-18
Coherent, one of a small handful of makers of indium phosphide lasers that shuttle data optically between chips in AI data centers, told investors it won't sell those lasers to outside customers for the foreseeable future — its own internal demand consumes 100% of production.
This differs from the HBM shortage: memory is a capacity problem you can build your way out of, while here one of very few suppliers of a critical component is pulling it off the open market entirely. The poster argues this previews what happens across the AI supply chain when everything is scarce at once, and that AI's most durable moat may be its least talked-about one.
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