Catenaa, Saturday, February 14, 2026-The IOWN Global Forum and Open Compute Project Foundation announced a joint initiative to create the AI Computing Continuum, a scalable infrastructure extending AI capabilities from centralized data centers to edge deployments.
The project aims to develop an open, interoperable framework connecting regional data centers, colocation sites, enterprise facilities, industrial locations, and offices.
IOWN will define photonics-based communications architecture, while OCP will standardize open hardware for the infrastructure.
The collaboration targets high-bandwidth, low-latency compute across distributed environments, enabling enterprises to maintain data sovereignty while accessing advanced AI resources.
Early adoption use cases are being designed for financial services, manufacturing, entertainment, logistics, construction, and urban development.
The initiative will optimize multi-layer system performance, promote energy efficiency, and create commercially viable approaches for emerging optical technologies.
OCP will apply hyperscale innovations to ensure scalable compute platforms, standardized power and cooling, and hardware abstractions for flexible software deployment.
Leaders emphasized that extending AI from central to distributed environments addresses growing computational and operational demands.
Dr. Katsuhiko Kawazoe, IOWN president, highlighted practical applications of IOWN technologies in AI data centers.
OCP CEO George Tchaparian noted the partnership allows hyperscale innovations to reach a broader market, while industry experts said the effort could accelerate AI deployment across training and inference workloads at the edge.
The initiative reflects broader trends in AI infrastructure, as demand grows for high-performance, energy-efficient computing that spans both core and edge locations.
