Gaetano@crux_capital_
🚨There is a ton of momentum building in photonics right now.
$POET $MRVL $LITE $COHR $AAOI $TSEM $CIEN
Every part of the stack is heating up, and management teams have basically spent the last month broadcasting the same story.
Let’s dig into some of the recent bits I’ve been watching...
$LITE
Q1 revenue up 58% YoY to $533.8M with next quarter guided to ~$650M, hitting their mid-2026 target two quarters early.
Management pointed to cloud-optics demand running well above supply with transceivers, optical circuit switches, and early co-packaged optics driving the next leg.
$COHR
“AI data centers and communications remain strong long-term growth drivers.”
They just posted $1.58B in revenue, +17% YoY, and highlighted accelerating hyperscale DCI demand across their ZR / ZR+ lineup and their 400G / 800G ramps.
$MRVL
“AI infrastructure is transforming faster than ever.”
“We’re going to have a silicon-photonics powerhouse at Marvell when this is all done.”
The $3.25B Celestial AI acquisition comes with a modeled $500M run-rate by FY28 and $1B by FY29
Celestial AI
“Marvell is the ideal home for our Photonic Fabric… the scale and customer reach to take this platform into high-volume production.”
$POET
Their optical-engine technology is already designed into Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric, the same platform Marvell just paid $3.25B to acquire.
As AI systems move toward denser, more integrated optical engines, POET sits directly inside one of the most advanced photonics architectures in the market - now part of Marvell’s silicon-photonics roadmap.
$AAOI
Revenue up 82% YoY.
They’re on track to build what they believe will be the largest domestic production capacity for 800G and 1.6T transceivers by year-end, roughly 35k parts per month, all inside their Texas footprint.
$TSEM
Expecting silicon-photonics revenue to more than double off last year’s base.
They’re investing $300M into photonics and AI-focused expansion and calling for ~75% growth in that segment.
$CIEN
“We delivered record orders. Cloud and AI providers continue to invest in high-capacity optical transport.”
DCI and long-haul momentum continue to show up directly in the numbers.
...
But you can’t just look at the transceiver and laser makers.
Some of the clearest signals are coming from the companies building the architecture and the supply chain behind it.
$AVGO
AI revenue moving from ~$11B to $20B+.
They’re doubling down on silicon photonics
Controlling the switch silicon, the optical DSP, and the optical engines at the heart of modern AI racks.
If you’re bullish on photonics, this is one of the companies defining the socket.
$ANET
Building the “AI spine.”
Their Ethernet-based AI networking platform relies entirely on high-speed optics to stitch together massive GPU clusters
100k-GPU scale and up.
As clusters get larger, copper falls out of the system and optics takes over.
$FN
Record ~$980M in revenue.
They manufacture optical engines for some of the largest players in the space - $NVDA, $LITE, $COHR, and others.
When Fabrinet says demand is exceptional, it means the orders are already in the building.
$GLW
Optical Communications revenue up 33% YoY.
AI racks require roughly 10x the fiber density of legacy cloud racks.
Corning is supplying the physical layer that makes 800G and 1.6T optics viable at scale.
$SMTC
Solid print tied to growing traction in Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO).
They sit in the analog layer, drivers and TIAs that fire the lasers, and are positioned directly under the 800G / 1.6T cycle.
$MTSI
Revenue up 30% YoY.
They build the high-speed analog components that sit behind next-gen optical engines and are essential for 1.6T designs.
....
This is all widespread.
It’s lasers, transceivers, optical switches, silicon photonics, scale-up fabrics, DCI, long-haul transport, Ethernet AI spines, fiber density, and the analog chips behind every laser all moving in the same direction.
If you’re tracking AI infrastructure, photonics continues to gain strength week after week.
