The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell-on-earth yarn claiming that Foxconn has sent its entire supply of CPO racks to Nvidia ahead of schedule. That could leave the company without display units for Computex, which is awkward when everyone wants to see the next AI plumbing miracle.
Nvidia is accelerating co-packaged optics development before its Feynman platform arrives in 2028. The idea is to ease the infrastructure connectivity and scale-out bottlenecks that make giant AI clusters such expensive prima donnas.
AMD is chasing the same direction, so Nvidia will not have the optical networking gold rush to itself. Still, Foxconn appears to be hitched firmly to Nvidia’s wagon for now.
Foxconn is a major AI infrastructure supplier to Nvidia and has a key role in optical switch racks. The company originally expected to ship more than 10,000 units in 2026.
That estimate has reportedly been jacked up to 50,000 units across 2026 and 2027. A fivefold bump is the sort of demand signal that makes supply chain accountants start smiling in spreadsheets.
United Daily News claims Foxconn started mass prototype shipments in the first quarter of 2026. Mass production and shipments are expected to follow in the third quarter.
The racks are being made at Foxconn’s Vietnam plant. Industry sources say all prototype racks have now gone to Nvidia, which points to a supply chain with about as much slack as a snapped rubber band.
Even the display cabinets have apparently been shipped out. Foxconn may turn up to Computex without actual CPO switch cabinets to show, which is a little grim for a hardware giant.
Industry insiders said that Foxconn’s all-optical CPO switch cabinets, made at its Vietnam plant, had already been shipped to Nvidia and supply was extremely tight. Even the display cabinets had been handed to Nvidia, with “not a single unit left.”
Foxconn is expected to enjoy double-digit gross margins and higher average selling prices from CPO solutions. The gear could contribute more than 15 per cent of its revenue, assuming the rumour mill has it right.
Nvidia is expected to ship more than 50,000 CPO switches and racks between 2026 and 2027. Foxconn, as the reported sole supplier for this solution, would be in line for a fat slice of that business.
Co-packaged optics should begin arriving in 2027, ahead of wider use in 2028. That lines up with Nvidia’s next AI platforms, including Rubin and Feynman, heading into data centres.
For AI infrastructure, the shiny GPUs are only part of the story. The pipes between them are becoming just as important, and Foxconn seems happy to sell Nvidia the whole cupboard.
