Homegrown technology company HFCL has launched OptiQ AI, a dedicated business unit and unified brand identity for its optical connectivity portfolio, as it looks to strengthen its position in the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure market.
The announcement comes as global investments in AI data centres, cloud computing and high performance computing continue to accelerate, driving demand for advanced optical networking solutions capable of handling higher bandwidth, lower latency and greater fibre density.
With OptiQ AI, HFCL has brought together its existing range of optical fibre cables and connectivity products under a single umbrella designed specifically for AI, cloud and hyperscale data centre environments. The company said the move is aimed at creating a focused identity for its optical networking business while addressing the growing infrastructure requirements of AI providers and hyperscalers.
HFCL said modern AI infrastructure is evolving rapidly as large GPU clusters continue to scale, placing significant pressure on networking systems to deliver faster speeds and support increasingly data intensive workloads. The company said its integrated optical portfolio has been designed to help customers manage these requirements while reducing deployment complexity.
The OptiQ AI portfolio includes Intermittently Bonded Ribbon cables, fibre assemblies, patch cords, fibre pigtails, high performance trunks, cassettes and enclosure panels. According to the company, the solutions are intended to support next generation network architectures, including 800G and emerging 1.6T optical networks, which are expected to play a critical role in future AI data centre deployments.
Mahendra Nahata, Founder and Managing Director of HFCL, said optical connectivity has become one of the foundational technologies enabling the AI era. He noted that as AI clusters grow larger and bandwidth requirements increase, enterprises require reliable, high density and deployment ready optical connectivity solutions.
Nahata also highlighted the broader market opportunity, pointing to industry projections that estimate the global AI optical market could expand from around USD 14 billion today to nearly USD 73 billion by 2030. He said the concentration of global supply chains in a limited number of regions creates an opportunity for Indian manufacturers to play a larger role in supporting worldwide AI infrastructure development through locally manufactured optical connectivity products.
HFCL currently operates multiple manufacturing facilities across India and supplies optical networking products to customers in more than 60 countries. According to the company, nearly 70 per cent of its domestic production is exported to international markets, including several developed economies. The company is also supplying products for projects such as BharatNet, while serving telecom operators, enterprise customers and hyperscale data centre operators.
The company said it is continuing to expand its manufacturing capabilities and research and development efforts to support increasing demand from AI and data centre customers. HFCL plans to increase its optical fibre cable manufacturing capacity to 45 million route kilometres during FY27, with a significant focus on the growing data centre segment. It also operates a dedicated research and development centre in Bengaluru focused on data centre technologies and has said it expects to file around 25 patents this year.
The launch reflects a broader shift across the telecommunications and networking industry as infrastructure providers position themselves to support the rapid expansion of AI workloads. As enterprises and hyperscalers continue investing in larger computing clusters, demand for high capacity optical connectivity is expected to remain a key area of growth across global digital infrastructure.