Breaking the Copper Wall: Co-Packaged Optics and the Materials Race in AI

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As AI workloads surge, copper interconnects are hitting hard limits in power and bandwidth density. Co-packaged optics (CPO) addresses this by moving optical-to-electrical conversion directly onto the chip package, placing photonics adjacent to switch and compute silicon. The result: dramatically lower energy per bit and far greater bandwidth density, which is why CPO sits at the center of the roadmaps now being set by NVIDIA, Broadcom, and leading hyperscalers. This CME STEM Talk examines why CPO is essential to the economics of AI compute, explores the core materials and engineering challenges across specialty materials, photonics, packaging, and thermal management, and identifies the highest-value problems for materials players to solve – while the architecture is still being decided.

We are delighted to introduce the four McKinsey experts who will address this topic:

Mark Patel, Senior Partner in the Bay Area office, is a leader in McKinsey’s global Semiconductors Practice and a member of the McKinsey Technology Council, focused on serving clients where complex technologies converge for global impact. He has led programs supporting some of the most iconic companies in advanced industries to embrace disruptive technologies across products and operations, combining deep technical understanding with hands-on operational expertise.

Guttorm Aase is a Partner in McKinsey’s New York office and the firm’s global knowledge leader for specialty chemicals. He advises clients across chemicals, materials, and advanced industrials on strategy, M&A, and innovation, with deep expertise in the semiconductor material supply chain. He has led major industry studies on resilient global supply chains and AI-driven R&D transformation, and has advised senior leadership teams across North America, Europe, and Japan for over 18 years. He is a CME Board Member since 2026.

Ryan Fletcher is a Partner in McKinsey’s New York office and a leader in the firm’s Advanced Industries work in North America, where he co-leads the semiconductor manufacturing service line. He advises semiconductor, electronics, and industrial clients on growth and performance transformation, with deep expertise in photonics and optics spanning components, lasers, and lighting. A former optical engineer, he has co-authored McKinsey’s research on the photonics industry and recently addressed Computex on the physical constraints shaping AI scale, including networking and optical interconnect.

Levent Tuter is a Senior Knowledge Expert in McKinsey’s Taipei office, focused on semiconductors and photonics across the Asian supply chain. He brings more than a decade of industry and advisory experience in compound semiconductor and epitaxy technologies, including a prior role at AIXTRON serving LED and laser manufacturers in Asia. He recently co-led McKinsey’s Future of Semiconductors session on datacenter connectivity, covering the roadmap from pluggable transceivers to co-packaged optics, the shift to 400G per lane, and the manufacturing and testing challenges across the photonics stack.