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first_img Goldman Sachs: Optical networks are the next trend in AI infrastructure, with TAM increasing 9 times to 154 billion USD

Goldman Sachs' Global Technology Equity Research Team released a report on April 17, 2026, stating that networks unlock the computing power of a single AI chip by connecting multiple chips, enabling seamless data exchange and low latency. With the expansion of AI infrastructure and the enhancement of computing power, various configurations are expected to see growth, further opening up a 9-fold Total Addressable Market (TAM) space to $154 billion.The report pointed out that the dollar content of horizontal and vertical scaling increases by 16 times and 45 times, respectively; the TAM for optics expands 13 times from horizontal to vertical scaling; the market value of pluggable optical modules in horizontal scaling expands 10 times from AI server models in the second half of 2025 to models in the second half of 2027. The authors include Allen Chang, Verena Jeng, James Schneider, Mark Delaney, among others.The total dollar content for each computing unit in vertical and horizontal scaling is expected to increase from $315,000 for GB300 NVL72 to $9.4 billion for Rubin Ultra NVL576, a 29-fold increase. The total value TAM increases 9 times to $154 billion (mainly in 2028), of which 69% ($106 billion) comes from vertical scaling. The analysis covers the dollar content and market opportunities of configurations such as copper cables, pluggable optical modules, CPO, and PCB backplanes.

first_img Cross-chain infrastructure Router Protocol announced its closure and will destroy 303 million ROUTE tokens

Router Protocol, a cross-chain infrastructure project supported by Coinbase Ventures, announced that it will cease all operations by September 30 and plans to permanently destroy 303,333,198 ROUTE tokens held in its treasury, accounting for about 30% of the total supply of nearly 1 billion tokens. The team released a statement on X, stating that over the past year, they attempted commercialization, licensing, and acquisition negotiations, but failed to achieve sustainable operational results.Router identified the flow of funds from the cryptocurrency sector to artificial intelligence and the decline in cross-chain asset transfer fees as core challenges facing its operations. As activities concentrated on fewer networks and standardized infrastructure, the demand for its services has decreased. The team noted that bridging economic profits are thin, fees have been compressed, and costs have never stopped. As part of the closure, Router will negotiate with centralized exchanges to stop supporting ROUTE tokens, and the delisting arrangements and withdrawal processes may vary across exchanges.Router raised $4.1 million from investors including Coinbase Ventures and Polygon in 2021 and launched the proof-of-stake Layer 1 blockchain Router Chain in July 2024, but it was shut down in September 2025 due to infrastructure costs, validator expansion, and security risks. The team also disclosed two security incidents in 2025: in February, approximately 80% of the value was recovered through negotiations after a vulnerability incident, while losses from a chain-level vulnerability in July could not be recovered.

first_img OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra, calling it the arrival of the AGI era

OpenAI officially released GPT-6 Astra on Thursday, with President Greg Brockman calling it a "generational leap in capability" during the press conference, and believing that the model has reached the standard of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), meaning that artificial intelligence can match or exceed human capabilities. Brockman stated, "Welcome to the era of AGI." If this judgment holds, it means AI entities will be closer to performing reasoning tasks in various complex tasks that humans can do, and even more.GPT-6 Astra is OpenAI's first model to cross the "critical" threshold under its internal danger capability scoring system, the Preparedness Framework, which means it can independently discover previously unknown software vulnerabilities (i.e., zero-day vulnerabilities) without gradual human supervision and chain them into attacks that can run in hardened systems. In testing, the model achieved a score of 100% on the ExploitBench benchmark; to rule out inflated scores due to memory answers, OpenAI conducted a second test using 20 recent vulnerabilities from the Google V8 JavaScript engine. Astra not only surpassed the previous generation GPT-5.6 Sol but also discovered and chained two previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities, which are still being disclosed to the affected parties.Due to its high autonomy, the monitoring difficulty of Astra has also increased. OpenAI acknowledges that in tests assessing its ability to evade supervision, the model is more difficult to track than previous systems.

first_img Catastrophe bonds are set to go on-chain, with the first tokenization issuance test scheduled for 2027

The law firm Harneys and the tokenization platform droppRWA plan to issue the first catastrophe bond that directly records ownership on the blockchain, with the first trading target set for early 2027. This structure will make the blockchain a legally enforceable record of ownership, with investor registration, qualification review, and payment processes all placed within the same system, reducing reconciliation time from several days to seconds, provided that the necessary regulatory approvals are obtained.The catastrophe bond market is a $65.6 billion market that allows insurance companies, reinsurance companies, and government agencies to transfer natural disaster exposure to capital market investors. The tokenized asset market has nearly tripled in the past year to over $33 billion, and Citigroup expects this sector to reach $5.5 trillion by 2030. The second quarter of 2026 is projected to be the largest quarter in catastrophe bond issuance history, with 48 transactions issuing a total of $11.3 billion, and the Bermuda Stock Exchange accounted for 93% of global catastrophe bond issuance in 2025.To lower the investment threshold, investors will not directly purchase catastrophe bond notes, which typically have a minimum denomination of $250,000, but instead purchase beneficial interests in vehicles that hold the bonds and pass through the returns, with the minimum investment amount expected to drop to $5,000. The project is still subject to applicable regulatory requirements and approvals, and any platform administrator role must be licensed under Bermuda's Digital Asset Business Act 2018.
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