Spectrum-X and Quantum-X Photonics by NVIDIA: status and timeline

Spectrum-X and Quantum-X Photonics

Silicon photonics switches with co-packaged optics for AI data centers. Quantum-X and Spectrum-X achieve 3.5x power efficiency vs electrical switches.

DeployStage 4 of 5

Quantum-X shipped late 2025; Spectrum-X Ethernet switches rolling out 2026

Updated Mar 2025Checked 10 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Spectrum-X Ethernet switches ship

Quantum-X photonics switches announcedMar 2025Complete.
Quantum-X ships in productionQ4 2025Complete.
Spectrum-X Ethernet switches shipTarget 2026Not yet reached.

Most important updates

NVIDIA announces Spectrum-X and Quantum-X co-packaged optics switches for AI data centersMar 2025

Upcoming

2026Spectrum-X Ethernet switches ship (next)

Current obstacles

Supply chain for photonic componentsSilicon photonics switches require new manufacturing processes. Scaling production to data-center volumes is the constraint, not design.
Data-center adoptionMigrating existing electrical-switch infrastructure requires coordinated hardware and firmware upgrades across large data centers.

Physics limits

Wavelength bandwidth is finiteOptical transmission is limited by available laser wavelengths and receiver sensitivity. Scaling beyond current throughput requires new wavelength bands.

How it works

3 parts

Silicon photonics

Light instead of electrons

Convert electrical signals to light, transmitted through optical fibers instead of copper traces. Photons don't interfere; light travels farther with less loss.

Co-packaged optics

Optics on the switch chip

Lasers and receivers embedded in the switch ASIC. Eliminates glueless interfaces that degrade performance on electrical switches.

Coherent detection

Higher information density

Coherent detection schemes encode more bits per wavelength, increasing throughput per fiber.

Spec sheet

Spec	Spectrum-X and Quantum-X Photonics
Quantum-X InfiniBand ports	144 × 800 Gb/s^R (reported)
Quantum-X aggregate throughput	115 Tb/s^R (reported)
Spectrum-X maximum ports	2,048 × 200 Gb/s (400 Tb/s total)^R (reported)
Power efficiency vs electrical switches	3.5x more efficient^R (reported)
Signal integrity improvement	63x better^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Update log

1 update

Mar 2025

Major: NVIDIA announces Spectrum-X and Quantum-X co-packaged optics switches for AI data centersPressHardware

About NVIDIA

The team behind Spectrum-X and Quantum-X Photonics

NVIDIA

AI GPUs, rack systems, CUDA, networking

NVIDIA designs the GPUs, networking and software behind most AI training and inference. Its CUDA software made GPUs the default for AI. In October 2025 it became the first company worth $5 trillion.

Vera Rubin in production in 2026; cloud partners get it from the second half of the year.
Licensed Groq's inference technology and hired its leaders for about $20B (Dec 2025).
Plans to invest up to $100B in OpenAI, tied to at least 10 GW of NVIDIA systems (Sep 2025).

nvidia.com (opens nvidia.com)Company profile →

Founded: 199333 yrs
Headquarters: United States
Status: Public
Listed: NVDA (opens google.com)NASDAQ
Valuation: $5.4Tmarket capSep 2026
Staff: ~42,000Jan 2026
Works in: ComputingAI accelerators & CPUsAIRobotics
Coverage: 10 programs · 30 updateslatest 3d agochecked 10 Oct
Customers: OpenAICoreWeave
Partners: IntelGroq
Suppliers: TSMCSK hynix
People: Jensen Huang (opens en.wikipedia.org)Co-founder, President and CEOColette Kress (opens en.wikipedia.org)CFOBill Dally (opens en.wikipedia.org)Chief Scientist

Spec

Spectrum-X and Quantum-X Photonics

Quantum-X InfiniBand ports

144 × 800 Gb/s^R (reported)

Quantum-X aggregate throughput

115 Tb/s^R (reported)

Spectrum-X maximum ports

2,048 × 200 Gb/s (400 Tb/s total)^R (reported)

Power efficiency vs electrical switches

3.5x more efficient^R (reported)

Signal integrity improvement

63x better^R (reported)