What Does Coherent Corp Do? Lasers, Photonics and Optical Chips

Coherent Corp makes the lasers, optical transceivers, and compound semiconductors behind AI data centers and industrial cutting. Here is what Coherent does, what it makes, and which customers depend on it.

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Aug 9, 2026 · 2 min read

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Coherent, formerly known as II-VI, makes industrial lasers, precision optics, and silicon carbide, but its fastest-growing business right now is the optical transceivers wiring together AI data centers. Every large AI cluster needs to move enormous amounts of data between servers, and optical connections are how that happens at scale.

The short answer

Coherent's photonics business spans data centers and consumer devices:

• Who buys it: NVIDIA buys optical transceivers for AI data-center networking; Apple uses Coherent VCSELs in Face ID sensing; Meta Platforms and Amazon buy datacom optics for their own AI infrastructure.
• What it's made from: Sumitomo Electric supplies the compound-semiconductor substrates used in Coherent's photonic devices.
• How it's manufactured: AIXTRON supplies the MOCVD epitaxy systems Coherent uses to grow those compound-semiconductor materials.

The full interactive map is on Coherent's supply chain page.

Who buys Coherent's photonics

NVIDIA buys Coherent's optical transceivers and interconnects to network its data centers. Meta Platforms and Amazon are both buying the same category of datacom optics for their own AI infrastructure. So Coherent's parts sit inside the networks of several of the largest AI buildouts under way, where almost nobody outside the industry sees them.

On the consumer side, Apple uses Coherent's VCSELs, a type of laser, inside the Face ID and sensing hardware in its devices. That's a much smaller business, but it's the one you can actually see, and it uses the same photonics know-how.

What Coherent's chips are made from

Photonic devices need compound-semiconductor materials that behave differently from standard silicon. Sumitomo Electric, a Japanese materials supplier, provides the indium phosphide and gallium arsenide substrates that go into Coherent's photonic devices. Growing those materials into usable wafers takes specialized equipment. AIXTRON, a German equipment maker, supplies the MOCVD epitaxy systems Coherent uses to grow compound-semiconductor and laser materials layer by layer.

See it for yourself

The full breakdown, with live tickers for every company involved, is on Coherent's supply chain map.