The Great Optics-Copper Crossroads

This week, Austin and Vik break down the optics vs. copper debate that rocked semis this week. Nvidia dropped $4 billion on Lumentum and Coherent, Credo posted a blowout quarter betting on copper, and then Hock Tan shocked everyone claiming 400G per lane works over copper in Broadcom’s labs — potentially pushing CPO out to 2030+. Plus, Vik’s 4D chess conspiracy theory on why Hock Tan is talking up copper when Broadcom is a CPO company.

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Chapters
(00:00) - Newsletter Plugs: Groq LPUs & Broadcom’s Laser Business
(03:15) - Dynamo & the Rise of Workload-Specific Hardware
(08:04) - Austin’s Broadcom Laser Deep Dive
(09:53) - The Week’s Whiplash: Optics Monday, Copper Wednesday
(17:50) - Why Nvidia Invested $4B: Geopolitics, Supply & the HBM Playbook
(24:15) - CPO Lasers & Optical Circuit Switches
(26:16) - Credo Earnings: 200% YoY Growth & the Copper Bull Case
(31:09) - Reliability, AECs & Oracle’s GPU Cluster Problem
(35:48) - Credo’s Optics Play: Micro-LED Active Cables & the CPO Timing Risk
(38:45) - Broadcom Earnings: Hock Tan’s Copper Bombshell
(43:34) - Customer-Owned Tooling: Hock Tan Says “Good Luck”
(44:25) - Vik’s 4D Chess Theory: Why Hock Tan Talks Up Copper
(47:03) - Wrap-Up: It’s Both — The Real Question Is Timing