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COMPANY RESEARCH / 5801.T

Furukawa Electric

Fiber cable, CW lasers, cold plates for data centers

Published by FyncaResearch checked How we research

Where it fits in an AI server rack

Group company Lightera began mass production of a 13,824-count optical cable for hyperscale data centers supporting AI (Mar 12, 2026), with capacity more than doubled since FY2023, and Furukawa sells high-output CW-DFB laser chips for silicon-photonics devices. It is investing about ¥55 billion (Mar 30, 2026) in water-cooling modules (cold plates) and air-cooling heat sinks for data-center CPUs and GPUs, citing generative AI; new heat-sink output starts July 2026 and new cold-plate capacity January 2027.

What the evidence establishes

AI-rack evidence

Disclosed: Furukawa Electric’s releases and product pages describe the 13,824-count cable, the CW-DFB chip and the ¥55 billion data-center cooling investment.

An explicit AI-server or AI-rack product, design-in, supply role, program, reference design or partnership, such as a part named for rack-scale AI systems or a product sold for AI data centers. For a rack builder, it means the company’s own AI servers or racks. This does not establish revenue, market share, volumes or future sourcing.

Component roleFiber cable, CW lasers, cold plates for data centers
EvidenceDisclosed: Furukawa Electric’s releases and product pages describe the 13,824-count cable, the CW-DFB chip and the ¥55 billion data-center cooling investment.
How we knowDisclosed The company’s own filing, release, annual report, product page or investor record describes the AI-server or AI-rack role. Where customers are unnamed, the listing says so.
Primary sourceFurukawa Electric — supporting disclosure
Company or official disclosure; vendor claims are attributed to their source.
Checked. This is the research review date, not the source publication or quote time.

Keep in perspective

Customers are not named, and the added cooling capacity is still being built. Lightera combines Furukawa’s fiber-cable units, including the former OFS.

Diversified business exposure. This describes the breadth or role of the business; it is not an investment rating. An AI-server product, design-in or partnership does not by itself establish material AI-rack revenue, market share, or future returns.

Connections to the assembly

These links explain the technology relationship. The model is illustrative and does not represent an actual manufacturer’s bill of materials.

Lasers & photonics

Electro-absorption modulated or continuous-wave lasers, and silicon-photonics chips, that turn the signal into light inside the transceiver.

Scope of the company links: InP lasers (EML, CW, VCSEL) and silicon-photonics chips inside modules and co-packaged engines. Lumentum and Coherent make EMLs and CW/high-power lasers and hold NVIDIA purchase commitments for lasers (Mar 2, 2026); Mitsubishi Electric estimates it led data-center EML chips in FY25 and plans over 3x EML capacity by FY30; Sumitomo Electric makes EMLs and CW lasers for AI data centers; Broadcom runs in-house InP/GaAs laser fabs and sells a pluggable laser source for its CPO switches. TSMC provides the silicon photonics in NVIDIA’s CPO switches, Tower runs silicon-photonics foundry platforms for 400G–1.6T modules, TFC makes external-laser-source modules, Furukawa sells CW-DFB chips for silicon photonics, Marvell includes silicon photonics in its interconnect portfolio and MACOM sells lasers and photodetectors. AXT supplies InP substrates upstream. AOI makes laser chips only for its own modules and is mapped under transceivers. TrendForce (reported, context only) puts combined EML and CW-DFB capacity near 50.7 million units a month in 2026.

Fiber & cabling

High-density optical fiber cables and multi-fiber connectors that carry the light from the rack to the cluster’s switches.

Scope of the company links: Fiber cable, MPO/MMC connectivity and patching from the rack to the network. Corning will raise US optical-connectivity capacity 10x under its May 2026 NVIDIA partnership; Fujikura’s AFL says an NVL72 rack can be fed with up to 1,152 fibers and sells ultra-high-fiber-count cable; Furukawa’s Lightera mass-produces a 13,824-count cable for AI hyperscale data centers; Sumitomo Electric markets a 6,912-fiber cable and high-density connectors; Browave, a Taiwanese passive-optics maker, is in NVIDIA’s CPO ecosystem. SENKO, also named by NVIDIA, is private. The SDM4 multicore-fiber MSA (AFL, Corning, Sumitomo Electric, TeraHop) is a specification, not a product. Other listed cable and connector makers were not verified for AI fiber in our September 2026 review. Amphenol added fiber connectivity with the CommScope connectivity and cable business it bought (closed Jan 9, 2026), and BizLink sells fiber cassettes.

Cold plates

Copper plates with fine internal channels mounted on the GPUs and CPUs. Coolant flowing through the channels carries the chips’ heat away.

Scope of the company links: Cold-plate makers with documented AI-server products: AVC (large-scale AI liquid-cooling production; a reference designer for unnamed leading GPU makers), Motivair by Schneider Electric (cold plates for NVIDIA SXM5 and AMD Instinct MI300X), JetCool, a Flex company (SmartPlate for NVIDIA H100 and RTX PRO 6000 and Broadcom TH6 switches), CoolIT, owned by Ecolab since July 2, 2026 (5+ million cold plates shipped), Auras, Delta (microchannel cold plates), Envicool, Jentech (liquid-cooling modules), SUNON (shipping since 1H 2026) and Forcecon (catalog). Eaton added Boyd Thermal’s cold plates when it closed that purchase (Mar 12, 2026); Supermicro markets its own DLC-2 cold plates; Luxshare lists cold plates for AI racks; Furukawa is adding cold-plate capacity for data-center GPUs from January 2027. The cold-plate supplier in any given NVL72 tray is not disclosed. Cooler Master and ZutaCore are private, and Fositek’s “Cold Plate + UQD” offer relies on AVC, so Fositek is mapped to quick disconnects only.

Air heat sinks

Finned heat sinks and vapor chambers on network chips, power parts and other components that are not on cold plates.

Scope of the company links: Heat sinks, heat pipes and (3D) vapor chambers for servers: AVC, Delta (two-phase vapor-chamber heat sinks for AI GPU/ASIC chips and power racks), Auras (heat-pipe, vapor-chamber and 3D-VC modules), SUNON, Nidec and Forcecon (server thermal modules, catalog). In a liquid-cooled tray these cover the parts left on air (NICs, drives, power stages); the supplier for any given rack is not disclosed. Jentech’s heat spreaders are package lids, not heat sinks, so they are not mapped here. Furukawa began new data-center heat-sink output in July 2026.

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