--- title: Ciena CEO who survived the telecom bust tells WSJ the AI... description: Ciena CEO Gary Smith says the current AI infrastructure boom is a different kind of cycle from the telecom bust he survived. People have 'grossly... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ciena-ceo-who-survived-the-telecom-bust-tells-wsj-the-ai-boom-is-different-appetxakw twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Ciena CEO who survived the telecom bust tells WSJ the AI boom is different | daily.dev og:description: Ciena CEO Gary Smith says the current AI infrastructure boom is a different kind of cycle from the telecom bust he survived. People have 'grossly... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ciena-ceo-who-survived-the-telecom-bust-tells-wsj-the-ai-boom-is-different-appetxakw og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ApPeTxakw.png og:image:alt: Ciena CEO who survived the telecom bust tells WSJ the AI boom is different og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Ciena CEO who survived the telecom bust tells WSJ the AI boom is different **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Ciena CEO Gary Smith says the current AI infrastructure boom is a different kind of cycle from the telecom bust he survived. People have 'grossly underestimated' the infrastructure AI will require, he says. Ciena's 3-nanometre WaveLogic chips now push 1.6 terabits per second over a single fiber strand, with a 2-nanometre version coming. Unlike the telecom bust, where 94% of laid fiber went unused, Citi's Heath Terry says there are 'no dark GPUs' today. Ciena expects 30% compound annual growth from fiscal 2026 to 2029 and an order backlog of about $10bn at the end of fiscal 2026. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How fast is Ciena's WaveLogic optical chip technology in 2026? Ciena has built 3-nanometre versions of its WaveLogic chips capable of sending 1.6 terabits per second over a single strand of fiber, with a 2-nanometre version currently in development. CEO Gary Smith points to this as part of the infrastructure buildout needed to support growing AI data center demand. _Engineers tracking optical networking advances for AI data centers follow coverage like this on daily.dev._ ### Why does the current AI infrastructure boom differ from the dot-com telecom bust? About 94% of fiber laid during the telecom boom went unused, according to Citi's Heath Terry, but there are 'no dark GPUs' today because demand from profitable cloud giants has outpaced supply. Ciena CEO Gary Smith, who led the company through the telecom crash, says buyers today are highly profitable and demand has been impossible to keep up with. _Developers weighing AI infrastructure spend decisions can track this debate on daily.dev._ ### What growth rate does Ciena expect in its AI-driven networking business through 2029? Ciena expects compound annual growth of 30% from fiscal 2026 through fiscal 2029, and anticipates ending fiscal 2026 with an order backlog of about $10 billion. CEO Gary Smith frames this growth as driven by waves of AI demand, starting with data center interconnects, followed by inference, agents, and eventually robotics. _Anyone sizing up AI infrastructure investment trends can follow updates like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Are we really repeating the telecoms crash with AI datacenters?](https://daily.dev/posts/are-we-really-repeating-the-telecoms-crash-with-ai-datacenters--wtlg07yfw) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Broadcom says AI companies can’t make their own silicon](https://daily.dev/posts/broadcom-says-ai-companies-can-t-make-their-own-silicon-opbib9lsm) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-infrastructure) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ciena-ceo-who-survived-the-telecom-bust-tells-wsj-the-ai-boom-is-different-appetxakw) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Ciena CEO who survived the telecom bust tells WSJ the AI boom is different","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ciena-ceo-who-survived-the-telecom-bust-tells-wsj-the-ai-boom-is-different-appetxakw","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ciena-ceo-who-survived-the-telecom-bust-tells-wsj-the-ai-boom-is-different-appetxakw"},"datePublished":"2026-10-26T17:10:57.539Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T17:11:26.868Z","description":"Ciena CEO Gary Smith says the current AI infrastructure boom is a different kind of cycle from the telecom bust he survived. 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