Ciena CEO Gary Smith Tells WSJ AI Demand Still Outpacing Supply for Its Optical Networking Chips

WSJ's Steven Rosenbush interviews Ciena CEO Gary Smith, a veteran of the 2001 telecoms crash, on AI driving optical-networking demand well past current chip supply. Ciena posted a 40% revenue surge on AI-driven demand and is pulling back from broadband to focus on data-center interconnect. Smith describes himself as 'suitably paranoid' given 2001 memories, but frames AI as a structurally bigger pull on optical capacity than the dot-com era.