AI datacentres and Ukraine's drone makers are competing for the same optical fibre

Ukrainian fibre-optic drone makers face sharply rising material prices as the war and the AI boom push up demand for optical fibre, dev.ua reports, citing an Ars Technica interview with Oleksii, an R&D representative at BlueBird Tech. To rely less on imported finished components, Ukrainian companies have started rewinding their own FPV drone coils from purchased bulk fibre.

Ars Technica's figures put Russia's 2025 purchases at more than 60 million km of fibre-optic cable, over 10% of world output, against a past share of no more than 1%. AI datacentre builders are buying heavily too, and research company TrendForce forecasts a global fibre shortfall of up to 180 million km in 2026. "Comparing fibre prices in 2025 and 2026, we saw growth of roughly six to ten times," Oleksii said.

China remains the main fibre source for Ukrainian makers, and Chinese suppliers have at times told Ukrainian buyers outright that they cannot supply them because they are from Ukraine, while Russia has far simpler logistics routes from China, he said. Air raid alerts also stop customs procedures, stretching delivery times.

Rewinding bulk fibre onto smaller drone-ready coils cuts costs slightly, but the main gain is quality control: finished coils from China sometimes carry defects, and a fibre break in flight means the operator loses the drone.