SemiAnalysis: Scale-across tech to drive $14B networking market by 2028 · 7 sources tracked

By PulseAugur Editorial · [7 sources] · 2026-07-06 17:01

SemiAnalysis reports that the "scale-across" technology, popularized by NVIDIA, is crucial for interconnecting multiple data centers into a single cluster. This approach addresses challenges faced by cloud providers with the surge in AI mega-clusters, which require millions of accelerators. While Microsoft and Meta are currently the most vocal about their use of scale-across, with Meta utilizing the Prometheus cluster and Microsoft employing AI-Backbone infrastructure, SemiAnalysis anticipates widespread adoption across the industry. The technology is expected to significantly boost the market for networking equipment, particularly ZR/ZR+ coherent pluggables and Optical Line Systems, with an estimated market value of $3 billion in 2026 growing to $14 billion by 2028. AI

IMPACT This technology is critical for scaling AI infrastructure, enabling larger and more powerful AI clusters by interconnecting multiple data centers.

RANK_REASON Analysis of a technology trend by a research firm, not a direct product release or announcement from a major tech company.

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AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 7 sources. How we write summaries →

SemiAnalysis: Scale-across tech to drive $14B networking market by 2028 · 7 sources tracked

COVERAGE [7]

X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ · 2026-07-06 17:01

To find out more, check our networking model, where we recently published an extensive note around this technological shift. (7/7) https://t.co/kqt0IiSiFi

To find out more, check our networking model, where we recently published an extensive note around this technological shift. (7/7) https://t.co/kqt0IiSiFi
X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ · 2026-07-06 17:01

Overall, the scale-across technology should meaningfully drive content on networking equipment, and more specially on ZR/ZR+ coherent pluggables and on Optical

Overall, the scale-across technology should meaningfully drive content on networking equipment, and more specially on ZR/ZR+ coherent pluggables and on Optical Line Systems. We currently estimate pure-scale across content to represent about $3B in 2026, and growing to about $14B
X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ · 2026-07-06 17:01

While Microsoft and Meta have been the only ones talking this openly around scale-across, we believe that almost all providers will shift towards this technolog

While Microsoft and Meta have been the only ones talking this openly around scale-across, we believe that almost all providers will shift towards this technology as is becomes harder to build datacenters large enough to host millions of chips, and to find a provider that can
X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ · 2026-07-06 17:01

As of now, only Meta and Microsoft have publicly communicated around their mega-clusters using scale-across, with the Prometheus cluster for Meta and their new

As of now, only Meta and Microsoft have publicly communicated around their mega-clusters using scale-across, with the Prometheus cluster for Meta and their new AI-Backbone (AIBB) infrastructure, and Fairwater for Microsoft, who intends to run real time AI training over Atlanta ht…
X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ · 2026-07-06 17:01

The main confusion comes from the fact that scale across can use the same network equipment as for traditional datacenter interconnect. Indeed, as interconnecti

The main confusion comes from the fact that scale across can use the same network equipment as for traditional datacenter interconnect. Indeed, as interconnections often reach a few kilometers minimum, operators can use ZR/ZR+ coherent pluggables and Optical Line Systems, which h…
X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ · 2026-07-06 17:01

Scale-across has been widely popularized by Nvidia last year, but is now often used imprecisely as a generic term to talk almost about any Datacenter interconne

Scale-across has been widely popularized by Nvidia last year, but is now often used imprecisely as a generic term to talk almost about any Datacenter interconnect network. To make it short, scale-across refers to backend datacenter interconnect networks that are used to connect h…
X — SemiAnalysis TIER_1 English(EN) · SemiAnalysis_ · 2026-07-06 17:01

With the recent surge in AI mega clusters, reaching hundreds of thousands to millions of AI accelerators, cloud providers encountered a new set of challenges th

With the recent surge in AI mega clusters, reaching hundreds of thousands to millions of AI accelerators, cloud providers encountered a new set of challenges that forced them to run chip interconnect at a new scale: interconnecting multiple datacenters together. This is called ht…

COVERAGE [7]

To find out more, check our networking model, where we recently published an extensive note around this technological shift. (7/7) https://t.co/kqt0IiSiFi

Overall, the scale-across technology should meaningfully drive content on networking equipment, and more specially on ZR/ZR+ coherent pluggables and on Optical

While Microsoft and Meta have been the only ones talking this openly around scale-across, we believe that almost all providers will shift towards this technolog

As of now, only Meta and Microsoft have publicly communicated around their mega-clusters using scale-across, with the Prometheus cluster for Meta and their new

The main confusion comes from the fact that scale across can use the same network equipment as for traditional datacenter interconnect. Indeed, as interconnecti

Scale-across has been widely popularized by Nvidia last year, but is now often used imprecisely as a generic term to talk almost about any Datacenter interconne

With the recent surge in AI mega clusters, reaching hundreds of thousands to millions of AI accelerators, cloud providers encountered a new set of challenges th

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