Goldman Sachs' global technology equity research team said on April 17, 2026, that networking can connect multiple chips to unlock the computing power of a single AI chip, enabling seamless data exchange and low latency. According to ChainCatcher, the firm said expanding AI infrastructure and higher compute capacity could lift demand across configurations and open a 9x total addressable market of $154 billion.
The report said the dollar content of horizontal and vertical scaling rises 16x and 45x, respectively, while the total addressable market for optics expands 13x from horizontal scaling to vertical scaling. It also said the value market for pluggable optical modules in horizontal scaling expands 10x from the second half of 2025 AI server models to the second half of 2027 models.
The authors include Allen Chang, Verena Jeng, James Schneider, and Mark Delaney. The report estimated that combined dollar content per compute unit across vertical and horizontal scaling will rise from $315,000 in GB300 NVL72 to $940 million in Rubin Ultra NVL576, a 29x increase. It said the combined value TAM will increase 9x to $154 billion, mainly in 2028, with 69% or $106 billion coming from vertical scaling. The coverage includes copper cables, pluggable optical modules, CPO, and backplane-related PCB opportunities.