Global electronics manufacturer, Molex, USA, announced on 15 April that it will acquire Israel-based company Teramount Ltd. Teramount develops detachable fiber-to-chip connectivity solutions for silicon photonic applications, specifically co-packaged optics (CPO). The technology is designed to enable faster data transfer rates for applications in AI, cloud computing and 5G workloads. The deal is projected to close by the end of June, and Teramount will continue as a design and engineering group in Israel while being supported by Molex’s global operation.

Building on a collaboration

This acquisition comes on the heels Molex’s announcement at the 2026 Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference that Teramount’s TeraVERSE detachable fiber connectivity product will be integrated into Molex’s “one-stop” CPO solution, the VersaBeam EBO Backplane Connector. The VersaBeam allows mass optical connections and “blind” installation, according to the company, and leverages Expanded Beam Optical technology to reduce sensitivity to dust and debris, cutting deployment time by 85%. Pairing the two technologies, the company says, creates a more energy efficient and faster optical path that enables a modular architecture that will help minimize damage to delicate fiber interfaces and bypass the need for onsite optical expertise.

“This collaboration is a gamechanger for our industry,” said Hesham Taha, Teramount cofounder and CEO, at the time of the OFC announcement. “By combining the proven interconnect expertise that Molex brings with Teramount’s breakthrough detachable-fiber and optical-coupling connectivity, we’re enabling hyperscalers to accelerate deployment of flexible, high-performance optical solutions.”

Toward scalable CPO

Now, through the acquisition, Molex is bringing Teramount’s technology in house. TeraVERSE is based on Teramount’s universal photonic coupler and wafer-level self-aligning optics, which allows assembly tolerances of more than ±30µm / 0.5dB for assembling fiber to a silicon photonic chip. Furthermore, the standard and swappable design means that any semiconductor company can transition to using silicon photonics and datacenters can easily scale up photonic integrated circuit density by allowing multiple connections between the circuits and detachable plugs without negatively impacting yield.

Aldo Lopez, president of datacom solutions at Molex, says Molex’s purchase of Teramount will allow it to combine its “innovative portfolio, manufacturing scale, supply-chain expertise and systems know-how” with Teramount’s “IP and engineering talent” to provide customers with “an integrated, high-volume path to deploy scalable CPO.” The companies say that the acquisition will accelerate the production of Teramount’s TeraVERSE technology while ensuring that it meets industry-leading performance specifications.

“Teramount’s TeraVERSE technology fills a crucial gap in the CPO stack, offering an advantaged and strategic complement to our optical solutions portfolio,” said Lopez. “With a practical, detachable fiber-to-chip interface we are afforded a foundational element to realize mainstream CPO adoption.”