From left, Kaoutar Benyahya, Kai Shi and Paolo Costa Microsoft Researchers
From laboratory bench to data centre floor Doug Burger, Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Research, places the development in context.“ The early concept of using LEDs to send data more cheaply – and with lower power – than both copper and fibre optics once seemed like a fantasy,” he says.“ This breakthrough has the potential to change nearly every aspect of computing infrastructure … starting with highbandwidth optical cables.”
MicroLED is one of two networking technologies Microsoft is working on currently. The other, Hollow Core Fibre( HCF), is already deployed in some Azure regions and is being rolled out more broadly.
Rather than guiding light through glass, HCF carries signals through a hollow air-filled core, enabling faster transmission and lower latency over equivalent distances. Published research indicates HCF delivers up to 47 % faster data transmission and approximately 33 % lower latency compared with conventional Single Mode Fibre. Developed at the University of Southampton and commercialised through Lumenisity, which Microsoft acquired in 2022, HCF is designed for longer-distance links between and beyond data centres.
78 June 2026