Largan's Lin: Developing CPO to Avoid 'Elimination by AI,' FA Pilot Production by September

(CNA, Taichung, 9th) Regarding progress on CPO, Largan Precision Chairman Lin En-ping stated that there are plans for a first automated pilot production line by September, and potential buyers will be invited for a tour. He estimates the time to small-scale mass production will be about 6 months to a year. He frankly admitted that developing CPO "is to avoid being eliminated by AI," and that they can now "bravely ramp up mass production" for FA products.

Largan held its shareholders' meeting in Taichung today, chaired by Lin En-ping. In a media interview afterward, he addressed the market's focus on CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) progress, stating a plan to launch the first automated pilot line by September 2026, with one large potential buyer already identified.

Lin stated the pilot line's products will primarily be FA (fiber array), which can be coupled with MLA (micro lens array) to form an FAU (fiber array unit). The main approach is to achieve overall precision goals through intelligent process control and compensation, rather than relying on high-precision V-grooves. Largan's business model allows for supplying both FA and MLA, depending on customer specifications and the final cost structure.

He further added that a large potential buyer will visit the production line, and initial customer specifications are all for single-layer designs. "Single-layer will still dominate next year and the year after," he said, with multi-layer demand likely to emerge in 3 to 4 years. "Then it will move into 4-layer, 8-layer."

Regarding the current precision status, Lin said the best external precision is currently 0.5 to 0.8 microns; Largan's internal tests have already achieved below 0.3 microns, with high precision and stacking of 4 or more layers being Largan's advantages.

In response to media reports that the CPO parts production line would require 40,000 people, Lin refuted this, stating that a "human wave" strategy is impossible in Taiwan and automation is necessary for survival. On the topic of CPO progress being faster than expected, he said that during the April investors' conference, he felt a bit "uneasy," but seeing the progress since has made him more confident.

Lin revealed that when he was in the lens industry, the rise of AI created "a lot of pressure" because AI development would increasingly reduce the need for lens upgrades. "It felt like the lens industry was about to be eliminated, which sparks the motivation to take another path." He added, "I was thinking about how not to be eliminated by AI and join it, which is why we developed the CPO project." He now considers it to have preliminary results, though the industry currently still faces a "shortage of land and talent."

Looking ahead, he said that Largan's core business is lenses, and now FA can be "bravely ramped up for mass production," while SiC and electronic materials are not yet at a stage for mass production.