Indeed, if you have a short Thunderbolt cable supplied with hardware, that may be a passive cable rather than an active one. Active cables can run a lot longer, but due to their construction, they ...

(The passive/active difference could also cause significant confusion if you connected two USB 3.x devices with a Thunderbolt 3 cable. A passive Thunderbolt 3 cable supported USB 3.1 at up to 10 Gbps, ...

What makes the USB4 40Gb/s Active Optical Cable different from other Thunderbolt 4 cables is their extended lengths–they’re available in either 3-meter (9.8-feet) or 4.5-meter (14.76-feet ...

The OWC Active Optical Cable is the fastest, most powerful, and most reliable solution for cost-effective long-distance connectivity of Thunderbolt 4/3 and USB4/3/2 devices.