CITIC Securities: Arista Announces XPO, a New Generation of Pluggable Optical Module Solutions, Focusing on Opportunities for AI Optical Interconnect Density Upgrades

CITIC Securities reported on March 19 that on March 11, 2026, Arista, in collaboration with over 45 industry partners, officially released the eXtra-dense Pluggable Optics (XPO) white paper, proposing a new pluggable optical module standard for next-generation AI data centers. A single XPO module can provide 12.8Tbps bandwidth (64 channels × 200Gbps), integrated with liquid cooling plates supporting over 400W power consumption, achieving 204.8Tbps switching capacity within one Open Rack Unit (1OU), representing a fourfold increase in front panel density compared to existing OSFP standards. CITIC Securities believes that the launch of XPO marks the official entry of ultra-high-density pluggable optical interconnects into AI data centers, which will profoundly change the product structure and value distribution of the optical module industry chain. It is recommended to focus on manufacturers with advantages in high-speed optical modules, optical engines, and liquid cooling solutions.