TrendForce forecasts demand for more than 62 million CPO and NPO optical engines in 2028, with wafer qualification, faster assembly and shorter testing times in 2027 determining whether suppliers can support that ramp. About 80% of the projected demand comes from scale-up interconnects linking accelerators within a compute cluster. The wafer numbers show why qualification matters. TrendForce puts nominal photonic integrated circuit (PIC) wafer capacity at roughly 430,000 wafers in 2027, with effective supply of about 80,000 after accounting for customer qualification and platform validation. It forecasts demand of around 150,000 wafers in 2028. Packaging and testing need productivity gains too. The active alignment throughput of just six units an hour and calls for a shift toward passive alignment. Optical-component testing needs to fall from roughly 100 seconds per unit to under 30 seconds, alongside parallel testing. We’re watching qualified wafer supply and assembly throughput alongside optical-engine shipment forecasts. Adding nominal capacity will only support the projected ramp as platforms pass qualification and packaging and testing lines increase output.