INSTITUTION PROFILE / OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS & PHOTONICS
Open Compute Project
The non-profit where data centre buyers publish their hardware specifications for everyone
The Open Compute Project (OCP) is a U.S. non-profit corporation that grew out of a project Facebook (now Meta) started in 2011. Its purpose is to publish specifications for data centre equipment, such as servers, racks, power, cooling and networking gear, and to improve them together. Its board brings together the biggest buyers of AI data centre hardware, Meta, Microsoft and Google, alongside chipmakers such as NVIDIA, AMD and Intel. This profile looks at one question only: how much influence OCP actually has over optical communications and photonics.
- OCP in 30 seconds
- What kind of body it is: the four types of influence
- What it does in optical communications and photonics
- How far its influence reaches (powers and geography)
- The companies and organisations involved
- Outlook
- Glossary, references and claim-to-source audit
1. OCP in 30 seconds
OCP is a forum where the users of data centre equipment, the buyers, take the lead in publishing specifications. OCP holds that openly sharing ideas, specifications and intellectual property maximises innovation, and it requires contributions to meet at least three of its five principles: efficiency, impact, openness, scalability and sustainability Sourced. In optical communications, it is not concerned with the electrical and optical specifications of transceivers themselves (the territory of OIF and IEEE 802.3). Instead it works on open specifications for optical circuit switches (OCS) and on the requirements for short-reach optical I/O.
2. What kind of body it is: the four types of influence
Unlike the companies in this series, the institutions that appear in our optical communications and photonics coverage do not sell optical components. What separates them is the route by which they influence the industry, and that gives four types.
3. What it does in optical communications and photonics
The OCP projects that bear on optical communications and photonics are as follows Sourced.
| Activity | Where it sits | What it covers | Explicitly out of scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) | A sub-project of the Networking Project | Open specifications for optical circuit switch hardware and software, integration with SDN, telemetry, demonstrations in data centres and AI clusters, and ensuring interoperability in cooperation with standards bodies | Any single company's proprietary approach, long-haul carrier applications, and the design of physical-layer components other than interfaces |
| Short Reach Optical Interconnect (SROI) | A workstream of the Future Technologies Initiative (FTI) | Defines requirements and metrics for using short-reach optics to improve bandwidth between processors and between processors and memory, and compiles them into an OCP requirements document | — |
| OCP Accepted™ and OCP Inspired™ | Product recognition schemes | Recognise products that comply with approved OCP specifications. Products whose design files have been contributed are Accepted; those without are Inspired | We have not confirmed any examples for optical components |
| Global Summit | Annual gathering | 10,835 people attended in 2025. The 2026 Summit is being held in San Jose on 12 to 15 October | — |
SROI is a workstream that defines not a product specification but what short-reach optical I/O is expected to deliver (requirements and metrics). Where OIF and IEEE 802.3 decide how things connect, OCP's role is to state up front, from the buyer's side, what conditions it wants met. For suppliers of optical components and packaging materials, OCP's requirements documents offer a way to read the procurement conditions of the hyperscalers (this is our own view).
4. How far its influence reaches (powers and geography)
| Aspect | What OCP has | What it does not have |
|---|---|---|
| Powers | The power to publish specifications and designs, accept contributions, and grant recognition marks to compliant products | Power to enforce specifications, to regulate, or to allocate research funding |
| Geography | Incorporated in the United States. Regional communities in Asia-Pacific, mainland China, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Japan, South Korea and Taiwan | Any route into a particular country's regulations |
| Decision-making | Run by the board. Votes in steering committee elections range from zero to three depending on membership tier (Silver one, Gold two, Platinum three, Start-up and Bronze none) | Equal one-company-one-vote voting (unlike OIF) |
| Openness | OCS meetings are recorded, and slides, proposals and minutes are published on the wiki (under the Bylaws and IP policy) | A closed-door forum for standards negotiation |
| Relation to optical specifications | The OCS scope explicitly includes ensuring interoperability in cooperation with standards bodies | Standards for the electrical and optical interfaces of optical transceivers (the territory of OIF and IEEE 802.3) |
OCP's board page quotes the chair as referring to about 300 corporate members, but it does not say when the comment was made. We could not retrieve the member list page by our methods, so this article does not give a current membership figure Not yet confirmed. As a rough guide to scale, we use the 10,835 attendees at the 2025 Global Summit.
5. The companies and organisations involved
How OCP relates to the companies in this series
| Company (candidate for this series) | Standing in OCP (as the primary sources put it) |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA | Board member (Rob Ober) |
| AMD | Board member (Robert Hormuth) |
| Intel | Board member (Jeff McVeigh) |
Note: we have not checked member companies beyond the board, because we could not retrieve the member list page by our methods. Whether other candidate companies for this series are members is unconfirmed Not yet confirmed.
6. Outlook
| What the evidence suggests | Primary information it rests on | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Optical circuit switching (OCS) will move from single companies' proprietary approaches to a form that several vendors can enter | The OCS sub-project excludes proprietary approaches and commits to vendor-neutral open specifications and cooperation with standards bodies | Inference |
| For short-reach optical I/O, the requirements and metrics set out by buyers will become reference points for component makers' development targets | SROI states that it will define requirements and metrics for optical I/O between processors and between processors and memory, and produce an OCP requirements document | Inference |
| The structure led by big buyers and chipmakers will continue for the time being | The board consists of Meta (chair), Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Arm, one individual and OCP's CEO | Inference |
7. Glossary
- OCS (optical circuit switch)
- A switch that redirects optical paths directly, without converting the optical signal to electrical form. Used to reconfigure the wiring of AI clusters.
- SROI
- Short Reach Optical Interconnect: an OCP workstream that sets out requirements for technology linking processors and memory with short-reach optics.
- OCP Accepted™ / Inspired™
- Recognition marks for products that comply with OCP specifications, distinguished by whether design files have been contributed.
- 501(c)(6)
- A category of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code for non-profit organisations such as trade associations.
8. References
- OCP About: founded in 2011, rooted in Facebook's data centre designs, open sharing of information, the five principles and OCP Accepted™. Checked against the Internet Archive snapshot of 7 September 2026. https://www.opencompute.org/about
- OCP Membership: the four corporate tiers and fees, votes in steering committee elections, and the start-up category. Checked against the Internet Archive snapshot of 1 June 2026. https://www.opencompute.org/membership
- OCP Board of Directors: names and affiliations of board members, and the chair's comment. Checked against the Internet Archive snapshot of 2 July 2026. https://www.opencompute.org/about/board-of-directors
- OCP Optical Circuit Switching: sub-project of the Networking Project, its objectives, scope and exclusions, and publication of meeting materials. Checked against the Internet Archive snapshot of 21 May 2026. https://www.opencompute.org/community/optical-circuit-switching
- OCP Short Reach Optical Interconnect: workstream of the Future Technologies Initiative, its objectives and scope. Checked against the Internet Archive snapshot of 21 May 2026. https://www.opencompute.org/community/short-reach-optical-interconnect
- OCP 2026 OCP Global Summit: 12 to 15 October 2026 in San Jose; 10,835 attendees in 2025. Checked against the Internet Archive snapshot of 20 September 2026. https://www.opencompute.org/summit/global-summit
- OCP Membership Directory: definitions of OCP Accepted™ and OCP Inspired™. Checked against the Internet Archive snapshot of 21 May 2026. https://www.opencompute.org/membership/membership-directory
- OCP Bylaws of Open Compute Project Foundation (amended 10 April 2025): a Delaware non-profit, non-stock corporation organised for 501(c)(6) purposes. Checked against the Internet Archive snapshot of 29 October 2025. https://www.opencompute.org/documents/bylaws
9. Claim-to-source audit
| Claim in the article | Category | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Founded in 2011; open sharing of information; at least three of five principles; regional communities | Sourced | Reference 1 https://www.opencompute.org/about |
| Corporate membership fees and steering committee votes | Sourced | Reference 2 https://www.opencompute.org/membership |
| Board composition; the chair's reference to about 300 corporate members (undated) | Sourced | Reference 3 https://www.opencompute.org/about/board-of-directors |
| Objectives, scope and exclusions of the OCS sub-project; publication of meeting materials | Sourced | Reference 4 https://www.opencompute.org/community/optical-circuit-switching |
| Objectives and scope of SROI | Sourced | Reference 5 https://www.opencompute.org/community/short-reach-optical-interconnect |
| 10,835 attendees at the 2025 Summit; dates of the 2026 Summit | Sourced | Reference 6 https://www.opencompute.org/summit/global-summit |
| Definitions of OCP Accepted™ and OCP Inspired™ | Sourced | Reference 7 https://www.opencompute.org/membership/membership-directory |
| Delaware non-profit, non-stock corporation; 501(c)(6) | Sourced | Reference 8 https://www.opencompute.org/documents/bylaws |
| The four types of institution; the view that requirements documents help in reading procurement conditions | Our calculation | Our own analysis |
| Current membership figure; membership status of candidate companies other than board members | Not yet confirmed | Could not be confirmed in references 1 to 8; this article does not estimate them |
| The three points in the outlook (section 6) | Inference | This article's reading of references 3 to 5 |
Last updated 26 September 2026 / Troy Technical
All statements come from OCP's website and Bylaws (because the website blocks automated access, content was checked against Internet Archive snapshots). Items marked "Inference" are this article's reading of the primary information, not statements by OCP.