Largan Moves From FA to FAU: How Will Cooperation and Competition in the Optical Supply Chain Change?

What Changed at This Investor Conference?

Our earlier article, “FA/FAU and Optical Coupling: Will Largan and Genius Electronic Optical Become FOCI’s Partners or Competitors?”, proposed a way to assess new entrants: are they delivering individual components, or optical units for which they can take responsibility for overall performance and delivery? Different delivery scopes create different boundaries between cooperation and competition.

Largan’s direction became clearer at its October 8 investor conference. According to Central News Agency (CNA) and MoneyDJ reports, Largan has shown customers an FAU production line, customers want to purchase complete FAUs directly, and the company is also seeking the work of mounting FAUs onto a carrier.[1][2]

This increases overlap with existing FAU integrators while leaving room to source optical components externally. The central questions in the emerging division of labor are who supplies the parts, who integrates them, and who takes responsibility for delivery.

From FA to FAU, Delivery Responsibilities Extend Downstream

An FA, or fiber array, is an assembly of optical fibers arranged at specified positions and spacing. The integration scope of an FAU, or fiber array unit, varies with product design and supplier terminology. Not all FAUs can be defined as the same combination of components. FOCI’s publicly disclosed ReLFACon, for example, is one solution incorporating lensed fiber-array connections and packaging-compatibility considerations.[9]

Under the plan Largan disclosed, it will manufacture FAs in-house, purchase optical components such as PMLAs—prismatic microlens arrays—and complete the FAU. The table below separates the company’s disclosed direction from the limits of each reported milestone.[1][2][3][4]

MoneyDJ reported that customers’ preference for complete FAUs relates to reducing disputes over assembly yield and responsibility. If Largan completes the integration, it can take on more of the delivery work, alongside greater manufacturing and quality responsibilities.[2]

How Relationships May Change for Six Suppliers

The table describes possible roles as Largan expands FAU integration. “Greater cooperation opportunity” does not mean confirmed production supply; “potential benefit” does not mean an order has been won; and “more competition” does not mean revenue has already declined.

Ability Has Clearer Cooperation Indicators, but Production Adoption Still Matters

Ability Opto-Electronics Technology has entered V-grooves and publicly sought to submit samples alongside Largan’s products. This supports a potential direction for cooperation, but does not confirm that Largan’s production line has adopted its products.[5]

If Ability completes qualification and enters the purchasing plan, Largan’s FA/FAU expansion could create shipment opportunities. The next issues for Ability are its share of purchasing, pricing, and yield requirements—not simply the size of Largan’s announced expansion plans.

Genius May Benefit, but “Customer-Specified” Does Not Mean Genius Was Selected

Genius Electronic Optical has several precision optical component initiatives and potential scope to work with FAU integrators. However, Largan’s statement that the prism for this generation was specified by the customer supports only the position of the existing nominated supplier. It does not identify Genius as that supplier.[3][6]

Genius can therefore be considered a potential beneficiary among component suppliers. Adoption in an existing design or subsequent qualification would establish a firmer supply position. If the customer uses another supplier’s component and the current design is already fixed, near-term entry may be limited.

In an executive interview, Genius also said that whether it moves into FAUs will depend on customer needs. Its present component-supply direction should not be read as a permanent commitment never to compete with integrators.[7]

FOCI Faces More Competition, but Orders on the Same Platforms Need to Be Tracked

Largan’s move into complete FAUs brings its role closer to FOCI’s. Competition will involve integration, qualification, and delivery capabilities; the precision of a single component cannot determine the outcome.

FOCI and Himax already have a joint-development foundation. Himax’s official August 2026 announcement said their collaborative products had entered an engineering-production ramp in the third quarter, while customer qualification and volume-production preparations continued. Formal production timing depends on customer deployment.[8]

What can be concluded now is that the direction of competition is clearer, not that FOCI has lost a particular order. If market demand continues to expand, FOCI’s shipments could also rise. Changes may first appear in its share of new orders, quotations, and bargaining power.

Himax’s Exposure Depends on the Component Layer; Asia Optical and Young Optics Depend on Adoption

Himax’s collaboration with FOCI includes wafer-level optics and silicon-photonics packaging solutions.[8][10] If a customer changes or adds an FAU integrator, the optical components could remain the same or change as well. Because Largan has not identified its external PMLA supplier, we cannot infer that Himax has won Largan orders or that competition facing FOCI will affect Himax proportionally.

Asia Optical and Young Optics have entry opportunities in precision components. Asia Optical has disclosed work on prisms and collimating lenses. At its July investor conference, Young Optics said an MT ferrule project had entered pilot production, while other products remained at different development stages.[11][12] Benefits depend on meeting the purchasing design and completing qualification. Neither can simply be classified as an established Largan supplier.

Customer-Specified Components Can Allow Cooperation and Competition at the Same Time

The external sourcing plan shows that FAU integrators may not be free to replace every component. Customers can retain approved optical components while adding different integrators to expand supply or compare delivery capabilities.

Under that division of labor, competition among module integrators would increase while some component suppliers could serve several of them. Relationships can also vary by project: a company may supply a part for one product and compete in integration for another.

This is an industry scenario inferred from customer nominations and external sourcing, not an announced cross-company supplier list. A supplier’s position should be assessed through its actual deliverables and customer adoption, rather than simply whether it is associated with CPO.

For CPO, This Adds Supply Options; the Actual Effect Depends on Mass Production

At the investor conference, Largan CEO Adam Lin said FA and FAU supply was tight.[1] If Largan’s integration and capacity investments become consistent supply that customers can use, they could ease some fiber-connection bottlenecks and turn previously constrained demand into shipments.

There are two limits to this inference. First, new capacity does not automatically create end demand; its effect depends on unmet demand already existing. Second, FA/FAU is only one part of CPO. More supply at this stage does not establish that all bottlenecks across the CPO system have been resolved.

Improved supply can support commercial deployment, but the profit effects may differ by company. Customers gain more sourcing options, and existing suppliers may face tougher comparisons on price and lead time. Industry shipment growth and individual suppliers’ profits still need to be assessed separately.

Equipment suppliers face a similar distinction. Largan said much of the equipment on these lines is developed in-house, so its expansion should not be directly converted into orders for external coupling or alignment-equipment vendors. Demand from other equipment customers must be evaluated separately.[2]

What to Track in 2026–2027

The main new information in 2026 concerns FA qualification and the direction of FAU integration. In 2027, the company plans to move through line installation and mass production. The 2028 project associated with multirow FAs and the 2030 factory planned on newly purchased land follow different timelines and should not be counted as available capacity in 2027.[1][4]

Largan’s investor conference clarified competitive boundaries in FA/FAU: integration work is expanding while component supply still leaves room for cooperation. Ability’s cooperation opportunities, potential benefits for Genius and other component vendors, and competition facing FOCI should all be reassessed as qualification, purchasing, and production data become available.

Figure: The left side summarizes the progress, plans, and opportunities pursued that Largan disclosed on October 8, 2026. The right side presents relationship changes inferred from publicly disclosed roles. Cooperation opportunities and potential benefits do not establish confirmed supply, and greater competition does not establish that orders have already shifted.