Silicon Silk Road

SpaceX’s $1.6 trillion telecom pitch meets reality

Starlink is becoming strategically important infrastructure. That does not mean it is about to conquer telecom.

May 25 • Matt Walker and Arun Menon

4

Spend Faster, They Said

Early earnings from hyperscalers in 1Q26 shows record backlogs, record debt, record capex, and AI revenue figures no two companies define the same way

May 1 • Matt Walker

2

April 2026

Petabits per rack: How AI traffic is reshaping networks

A review of 30 OFC 2026 papers from Meta, Samsung, TSMC, Ciena, and others on how AI networks are built today, where the architecture is heading, and…

Apr 27 • Matt Walker

Telco NI market outlook: Recovery in a divided market

Growth in telco network spending returned in 2025, but geopolitics and AI-driven demand are reshaping industry; Fujikura, Wiwynn, Alphabet, Amazon and…

Apr 15 • Arun Menon

1

Breaking the AI power tax at OFC 2026: from silicon photonics to hollow core fiber

How industry giants and startups are re-engineering the physical layer

Apr 10 • Matt Walker

2

Another oil crisis pushes telcos to renewable energy

As America’s latest Middle East war spikes oil prices, telcos like Turkcell, Tele2 and DT reap benefits from green energy push; laggards like Charter…

Apr 8 • Matt Walker

6

March 2026

Hyperscale market outlook: The rising risk of a crash

Annualized capex clears 500 billion dollars while free cash flow hits record lows as the AI arms race drains liquidity

Mar 31 • Matt Walker

Oracle’s AI bet is rewriting its carbon story, and not for the better

Energy use up 24% CAGR since 2019, emissions stable thanks to renewables; Stargate may explode its carbon footprint, though

Mar 19 • Matt Walker

Telecom confronts climate crisis at MWC

Telcos spend too much on energy, and emit too much carbon into the air; vendors aim to address both problems at MWC 2026

Mar 9 • Matt Walker

1

February 2026

Baidu’s Great Wall: Building an AI future without NVIDIA

Over one-quarter of 2025 capex paid for self-designed chips & servers, likely the highest ratio worldwide

Feb 27 • Matt Walker

1

The AI tide hits Hawaii: Power, fiber, and the ghost of bubbles past

With webscaler energy consumption jumping 23% in a single year, per MTN Consulting, the AI “super-cycle” is hitting a physical wall

Feb 19 • Matt Walker

2

1

Hyperscalers channel Ronald Reagan with capex bombast

Record-breaking spending, 2009-level layoffs, and the "too big to fail" bet.

Feb 7 • Matt Walker

1