After a sharp 9% drop in 2024, the optical transport market is on track to hit $19 billion by 2029, says Dell’Oro Group. Hyperscale cloud providers are fueling the rebound, pouring capital into AI-driven data center interconnect projects. Long-haul DWDM gear and ZR/ZR+ optics are leading the surge, while disaggregated WDM systems gain favor for their flexibility and efficiency in handling massive inter-data flows.