Molex is moving to shore up its co-packaged optics capabilities by acquiring Israel-based Teramount, a provider of detachable fiber-to-chip connectivity for CPO and other applications.
This deal combines the two companies’ engineering expertise, with a focus on Co-Packaged Optics R&D, which includes Teramount’s Israel-based design center.
A key element that Teramount brings to the table is its TeraVERSE® platform, based on its universal photonic coupler and wafer-level self-aligning optics, which provides a field-serviceable interface between optical fiber and silicon photonics chips and was recently announced as part of the Molex one-stop CPO solution at OFC 2026.
“Teramount’s TeraVERSE technology fills a crucial gap in the CPO stack, offering an advantaged and strategic complement to our optical solutions portfolio,” said Aldo Lopez, president, Datacom Solutions, Molex. “With a practical, detachable fiber-to-chip interface, we are afforded a foundational element to realize mainstream CPO adoption.”
Focus on acceleration
A big focus of Molex’s Teramount acquisition is scale.
By combining Teramount’s IP and engineering expertise with its optical capability and global manufacturing scale, Molex can raise performance specifications and accelerate production of TeraVERSE.
Teramount’s passive, detachable coupling approach supports large assembly tolerances and semiconductor-grade wafer-level processes. Unlike active alignment methods, passive alignment is materially more scalable as CPO moves toward volume production.
“Harnessing Molex’s global scale and system-level expertise with Teramount’s innovation expertise and detachable, wafer-level coupling technology creates a real pathway for scalable, high-density CPO,” said Hesham Taha, CEO and co-founder of Teramount. “Joining forces with Molex will enable us to accelerate delivery of a manufacturable, serviceable fiber-to-chip interface that meets the pressing needs of AI and hyperscale data centers.”
Molex said the addition of TeraVERSE to its optical interconnect portfolio provides customers with greater support across their CPO and silicon photonics architectures.
Teramount will remain a design and engineering center in Jerusalem supported by Molex’s global optical capabilities.
After meeting regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2026.
Positioning for CPO growth
It appears that Molex is positioning itself to be a part of the CPO market.
Molex’s deal for Teramount caps off a busy week in optical M&A. Fellow optical vendor Credo reached a deal to acquire DustPhotonics.
Other notable deals in the CPO segment include Marvell’s acquisitions of Celestial AI and XConn. Likewise, Ciena purchased Nubis.
All of this reflects the growing interest in CPO from cloud operators and data center providers.
As cloud operators’ bandwidth needs for AI clusters continue to rise, so do sales of optical transceivers, linear pluggable optics (LPO), and co-packaged optics (CPO) for scale-out and scale-up networks.
LightCounting, in its recent “Optics for AI Clusters” report, estimates that sales of Ethernet optical transceivers (beginning with 100G) and CPO for scale-out and scale-up networks used in AI clusters reached $16.5 billion in 2025, and it will reach $26 billion in 2026.
The research firm said its forecast “corresponds to a 60% growth rate for both 2025 and 2026.”
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