China Next Winners - Asia Tech: The push toward NPO and AI SuperPod

This report is part of a series on China Next Winners in which we identify the next generation of industries and corporate winners in China. China's NPO ecosystem has the key building blocks but remains more fragmented than TSMC's COUPE platform. Current domestic NPO demonstrations are generally based on edge-coupled, MZM optical engines with external 100/200mW CW lasers, targeting c.3.2T bandwidth, with volume production targeted for 2H27. Innolight and TFC remain focused on overseas NPO/CPO opportunities, while Accelink and HG Genuine target domestic NPO OE demand, and Lightelligence and Xphor develop NPO PICs. Huawei's Atlas 960E is China's first NPO SuperPoD, scaling to 4,096 NPUs and replacing 48,000 800G optical modules with 5,500 7.2T NPO engines, cutting power consumption by over 550kW and benefiting SMIC as core foundry partner. China's AI server market should accelerate as domestic AI chip supply improves, benefiting ABF substrate makers, switch vendors and server OEM/ODMs. W