Greetings, and welcome to the Lightwave Logic special call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero from your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, it is now my pleasure to introduce Ryan Coleman with Investor Relations. Ryan, you may begin.
Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for this special call. I'm joined on today's call by Lightwave Logic's Chief Executive Officer, Yves LeMaitre. Please note that this call is in listen-only mode for the duration of the call and that a replay will be posted to the company's website shortly after the conclusion of this call. During the call, Yves will discuss the market opportunity for electro-optic polymers, their competitive position versus legacy technologies, the company's go-to-market approach and strategy, and the company's recent announcement with Polariton Technologies. We will then move to a moderated Q&A session. Some of the matters we'll discuss on this call, including statements and our business outlook, are forward-looking. As such, this call speaks only as of today, March 13th, 2025.
Such statements may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The matters discussed on this call are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and these risks and uncertainties could cause actual future operating results to differ materially from those expressed in the call. A more detailed description of the risks our company faces is more fully described by the company under the caption "Risk Factors" included in our most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q. As always, Lightwave Logic assumes no obligation to update the information presented on this conference call. Any time-sensitive information will no longer be accurate at the time of replay listening or transcript reading. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Yves.
Thank you, Ryan, and thank you to those who have joined this call. Since our last call on January 9, we have received questions looking for clarity on some of the initiatives we discussed that day, such as where exactly we planned the value chain or revised go-to-market strategy and the status of product development and customer engagement. We'd like to take the opportunity on this call to provide more details on these matters and better articulate where our efforts will be focused going forward. To begin, I think it is important that we better identify our target market and the size of the opportunity accessible to Lightwave Logic. In their recent earnings call, NVIDIA announced that the data center part of their revenues is expected to reach $115 billion for fiscal year 2025, and it represented 88% of their total sales, with a five-year CAGR of 108%.
This AI-driven explosion in data center compute and networking infrastructure is creating unprecedented demand for high-speed optical interconnects. For the first time in 2025, the market for optical transceivers is expected to exceed $20 billion, with a major part of the growth coming from AI supercluster optics, doubling in number of units year over year and expected to approach $5 billion in annual sales. The last couple of years have seen the demand explosion created by AI training, generating, and inference models, and its impact on scaling compute and networking infrastructure. This market is not stopping here. The introduction of accelerated computing in traditional data centers and the emergence of AI factories are forcing hyperscalers and enterprises alike to rethink their network architectures, resulting in more optics and faster optics.
This is where Lightwave Logic comes in, helping the AI network scale in bandwidth and number of ports while optimizing power and latency, with every optical link being stretched to deliver the next order of modulation bandwidth. It all started at 10 gigabits per second per lane, then 25, then 50. Now, AI and data centers are primarily using 100 gigabits per second per lane, with transceivers using eight parallel lanes to achieve 800 gigabits per second. The industry is already planning to aggressively deploy 200 gigabits per second per lane at the end of 2025, with a production ramp in 2026. This will enable 1.6 terabits per second transceivers of eight lanes at 200 gigabits. Next is 400 gigabits per second per lane to build 3.2 terabit optical links, with a likely volume deployment starting in 2028.
It does not stop at 200 gigabits per second per lane, and with every new generation, the EO polymer material from Lightwave Logic becomes a more critical component of this roadmap to 400 gigabits per second and beyond. According to LightCounting, a leading market research firm for optics, the number of high-speed transceivers and co-packaged optics units sold will approach 20 million units in 2025, or an addressable market of $7 billion. To be clear, these numbers only include the units where the modulator speed is 100 gigabits per second or higher. These numbers are expected to grow to 38 million units or approximately $10 billion in sales in 2027. This is a primary market we are targeting at Lightwave Logic, and where we expect the technology to deliver superior performance, lower power, and easier integration in silicon.
To help size this opportunity, it is important to understand that every single optical transceiver, from 10 gigabits per second to 3.2 terabits per second, includes one or multiple modulators. These modulators come in various forms and flavors. They can be integrated within a laser, like for example, indium phosphide EMLs. They can be standalone components, like with lithium niobate, or they can be integrated into silicon chips, which seem to be the preferred industry solution for the future, as it lends itself better to integration with electronics. Our internal estimate is that the modulator portion of the transceiver ranges from 10% to 25% of the total value, depending on the level of integration provided. We estimate that this equates to a total serviceable market in 2027 of between $1 billion and $2.5 billion.
We believe that our new go-to-market strategy leaves us well positioned to capture a meaningful share of this opportunity, as we open up access to our technology toolkit and get our materials into the hands of potential partners for design wins in 2025 and 2026. Stepping back, it is important to understand the broader ecosystem, the value chain, and where we come into play. Transceivers are the packaged optical modules that data centers and AI companies buy to interconnect their systems. Each new generation of transceiver increases speed from 800 gigabits per second today to 1.6 terabits next year and eventually 3.2 terabits. Historically, these transceivers were built using discrete components such as the laser, the modulator, the receiver, and multiple electronic circuits. This was the original plan for Lightwave Logic to supply such components or devices either packaged or as a simple chip or PIC.
Throughout last year, it became clear to us in our discussion with target customers that the new architectures had to be much more tightly integrated and that the time of discrete components had passed. Our customers want optical chips that can be easily integrated together, co-packaged with electronics, and preferably using a silicon photonics platform to reduce size, power, and cost, while benefiting from the major investment made by the semiconductor industry over the last 40 years. The good old model of telecom transceivers using separate discrete modulators did not scale and had to quickly adapt to deal with the tens of millions of units required by the AI and data center market. Multiple major semiconductor and optical players decided to invest in designing and manufacturing next-generation photonic integrated circuits, or PICs, combining on the same chip the most advanced functions, including the laser, the modulator, and the receiver.
This trend was started by Intel, but now includes dozens of companies in North America, Europe, Israel, and Asia. At Lightwave Logic, we changed our plan and decided to refocus our effort at delivering our unique polymer materials to these companies developing such integrated silicon photonic chips. By adopting this strategy, we significantly reduced our market adoption risk, as we can focus on resources and investment on the fundamental differentiator for Lightwave Logic, designing the best chromophores to turn our electro-optic polymer platform into the highest-performing modulator. We can now partner with the best-in-class silicon photonics design houses to incorporate our chromophores into their PICs. The silicon photonics PICs today are reaching their performance limits and are struggling to handle the scale-up of high-speed optical interconnects.
We will work with PIC designers to integrate EO polymers into their platforms, helping them unlock the gate to higher speeds and lower power consumption. We also collaborate with foundries to ensure our materials can be processed at scale. Our public partnership with AIM Photonics is an example of this, demonstrating that polymers can now be integrated into CMOS fabs with relative ease. I am confident that this adjustment in strategy will allow us to move faster and allow us to get our materials in the hands of more and more potential partners to help accelerate commercialization. This shift in positioning aligns us with where we create the most value. Successful materials companies like DuPont with Teflon or Corning with Gorilla Glass focus on supplying the foundational technology for industry-wide transformation.
As discussed earlier, even by operating at the materials level, the serviceable market remains very large, and time to market is most critical to deliver value to our shareholders. We also believe that our inherent cost structure and manufacturing yields will be superior to competitive solutions, allowing us to enjoy above-industry-average gross margins in high-volume production. EO polymers are at the heart of the next revolution in AI networking. By positioning ourselves as the materials leader, we will be able to maximize our impact and accelerate industry adoption. The fundamental bottleneck when dealing with the challenge of scaling is the reliance on legacy solutions and materials that are incompatible with higher signaling rates. Traditional modulators, materials like silicon, indium phosphide, and lithium niobate, are hitting performance limits. This has forced companies to use complex electronics like digital signal processors to compensate for these limitations, adding power consumption and cost.
The challenge with silicon photonics is that it relies on external materials for critical functions. Lasers use indium phosphide, receivers use germanium, and modulators are struggling to scale beyond 100 gigabits per second per lane. The industry needs a better material for modulators that enable 200G, 400G, and eventually 1 terabit per second per lane without excessive power consumption. The window for a new material is wide open, and the industry consensus is that the future is likely to be based on a combination of silicon and hybrid materials delivering the best performance at the right cost and low power. Silicon organic hybrid platforms are being designed to incorporate materials such as EO polymer, lithium niobate on silicon , or indium phosphide.
The fundamental electro-optic characteristics of EO polymer and ease of integration into CMOS foundries give us an edge against alternative technologies: bulkier, costly, and harder to integrate in silicon when compared to polymer. Polymers have inherent advantages over platforms based on crystalline materials and can deliver better electro-optics response, as demonstrated by our partnership with Polariton Technologies. As an example of our new strategy and proof of our unique value to customers, I'd like to take a moment to discuss our recent announcement with Polariton. Earlier this week, we announced an important expansion of our business and technical partnership to accelerate the introduction of 400 gigabits per second per lane and beyond for AI and data center optical links.
As many of you will know, we first announced our partnership with Polariton Technologies last year to demonstrate a packaged device with over 110 gigahertz super high bandwidth electro-optic polymer modulators, also using Polariton's plasmonic modulator device that contained our chromophores manufactured in Denver, Colorado. Since then, both companies realized the need to bring forward disruptive solutions, and that time was of the essence. Together, we are moving beyond the material licensing and prototype building phase to the joint development of business partnerships and leading products. The unique combination of Lightwave Logic's high-performance electro-optic polymer materials with Polariton's plasmonic circuits will address the inherent bandwidth and form factor bottlenecks of traditional materials that we just discussed, including indium phosphide, silicon, and silicon lithium niobate, in order to accommodate ultra-high bandwidth.
The ability to modulate the optical signal at 400 gigabits per second and beyond is critical to achieve bandwidth of 3.2 terabits per second and 6.4 terabits per second in the future. Polariton, in partnership with ETH Zürich, just published a fascinating paper showcasing state-of-the-art plasmonic modulators that achieve an electro-optic bandwidth extending into the terahertz range. Only through the combination of revolutionary materials such as the chromophores and Polariton's plasmonic structures can such results be achieved. Polariton has developed O-band products with Lightwave Logic electro-optic polymers that are available for sampling with select customers. We are excited about this partnership and look at it as an excellent example of our future customer relationship and how we intend to supply our materials into the AI ecosystem.
The major worldwide optical conference, OFC, will coincide with my first 100 days on the job, and I'm happy to report that we have already lined up many of the major potential customers for technical and commercial meetings at the show. As you realize, although the end users of our materials remain the same, our new go-to-market strategy requires us to engage with a different set of direct customers. Since my first day on the job, I have immediately approached these new potential customers so we don't miss a beat in our commercial progress. Customer response has been overwhelmingly positive, but we need to move fast. Every morning, our team starts the day with one primary goal in mind: get our polymers deployed in real-life optical links as soon as possible. Step one is to convince customers that our EO polymers are indeed superior to alternative technologies.
Most of our customers are physics experts already convinced about the technology potential. However, they want to make sure that our materials will sustain performance over time and through challenging operating conditions. As a result, we continue to work on and expand our reliability and materials qualification activities. Step two is to explain and educate customers about how to use our materials and integrate them into silicon photonics chips and foundries. This requires us to supply our process development kit, or PDK, as well as technical and application support during the PIC design and validation phase. Once the product design is complete, step three is to work with the customer to test and qualify the final product. During that step, we also validate that the chosen silicon foundry partner is capable and ready to build the final product.
Finally, step four will consist of ramping up production and yield to reach high-volume manufacturing. The form and timing of commercial contracts and agreements vary greatly by customers, but they are typically formalized during the first two steps. The complete cycle from initial customer engagement to volume production also varies by customer, but a good approximation is 18 to 24 months depending on the complexity of the program. Our focus is on driving all necessary technical and manufacturing activities to be selected by customers for their new PIC designs in 2025 and 2026, targeting volume ramp in 2027 and 2028. Looking ahead, we plan to remain active with our upcoming participation in both investor and industry events. Next week, we will attend the Roth Investor Conference on March 17 and 18 in Southern California, where Tom and Jim will conduct one-on-one meetings with investors.
Later this month, we will be attending OFC 2025 in San Francisco from March 30 to April the 3rd. We have also targeted events in the second quarter, which we will update our investors on as appropriate. With that, I would like to turn the call back over to Ryan to moderate our question-and-answer session.
Thank you, Yves. When we announced this call, we invited investors to submit their questions ahead of time. We'd like to thank those of you who took the time to do so. While the number of individual questions received was more than we could adequately address in this format, we've attempted to address as many as possible in our remarks already and selected the ones most frequently asked for the purposes of this discussion.
Our first question is: how many active negotiations are underway with tier one or tier two partners, and what are the current stages of those discussions?
As I said in my prepared remarks, with our refocus on materials, we are now pursuing a new set of customers, primarily silicon photonics design houses. There are more than 30 such companies in the world, from multi-billion dollar semiconductor and optics players to innovative and VC-funded startups. They are my primary focus in terms of commercial engagement. In addition, although we might not be direct suppliers to end users such as transceiver manufacturers, AI companies, or hyperscalers, meeting with these companies remains critical to us, as they are the ones driving the industry roadmap.
Our progress varies by customer, from technology evolution to evaluation to product design, with the vast majority in the steps one and two of the commercial process I described earlier in my remarks. In my first quarter with the company, I had productive meetings with executives of more than 20 companies in the ecosystem. I was really happy to see the renewed interest in polymers for next-generation designs. This is what I was hoping for when I took on my new role, and I left these meetings feeling that we have our destiny in our hands, but also with the pressure of both time and expectations. Despite the long gestation period to get the materials ready, there are still so many believers in polymers in the industry and on this call. Our job at Lightwave Logic is now to turn these unique materials into products and commercial successes.
Our second question is: is the material 100% ready? What further tests or validation are needed, and are commercial deals possible before this testing is completed?
First, I'm a strong believer in a philosophy of continuous improvement, what the Japanese call kaizen. We will never stop trying to improve all the key aspects of the materials, from specifications to power to size to reliability. To answer your question, yes, we believe our raw material is ready. However, a critical task remains to make sure that the chromophores deliver the expected performance and reliability when integrated into the customer PIC. This is where most of the work will happen over the next year in partnership with customers and with our fabs.
Our next question: why is there so little discussion about polymers in the industry?
Is this silence concerning, and what does it say about acceptance and market potential?
I am afraid I will have to respectfully disagree with this statement. I have been talking to some of the most famous and respected industry experts, and they all monitor our progress with utmost attention. As I said earlier, the pressure is on.
Plasmonics appears to be an excellent solution to add more speed but may be very difficult to scale. Is this problem solved, and would scalability issues impair the company's ability to meet expected market demand?
Like most disruptive technologies, plasmonics require some changes in design and process versus traditional established solutions.
The reason why people are excited about it, especially at 400 gigabits per second per lane and beyond, is that when you reach these range of frequencies, you cannot solve the bandwidth challenge only with a superior optics material like polymer. You also need to have the high-speed RF and electronics to be able to catch up with optics. For many years, it's been the other way around: optics trying to catch up with electronics. Plasmonics is exciting in that regard, and customers are willing to take chances to break the 400 gigabits per second per lane barrier.
In our last question, do the inherent molecular advantages that enable polymer modulators to be faster, cheaper, use less power, and package more compactly compared to alternative technologies become more pronounced as data center speeds move from 800 gigabits per second to 1.6 to 3.2 terabits?
Yes. Thanks for the question.
The higher the modulation bandwidth, the more polymers shine. I mean, this is the beauty of using organic materials as opposed to crystalline structure like lithium niobate or silicon or silicon nitride. Our material inherently responds better and faster when an electric field is applied to it. The speed at which we can change the refractive index to turn on and off the light is much faster than other materials.
Thank you. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Yves for any closing remarks.
We are fortunate at Lightwave Logic to have dedicated, supportive, and passionate shareholders, and we are looking forward to meeting some of you live or virtually at our next annual shareholder meeting in May. Thanks to all of you for your many questions and interest in the company.
Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you for your participation.
You may now disconnect your lines at this time.