Lumentum Holdings Inc

Optical networking stocks rallied Thursday after Bernstein initiated coverage of the group with an Outperform rating, calling the companies structural AI winners. Coherent jumped 11%, Lumentum rose 7%, Ciena gained 7%, and Arista added 0.4%. Coherent led the move after launching PhotonLink, an optics platform for AI infrastructure that packages its services, photonics technologies, and components including lasers, fibers, and detectors into one platform for AI data centers. The company said it already has 20 customer engagements split between co-packaged optic and near-packaged optic assemblies, plus five engagements in emerging chip-to-chip connectivity. The gains extend a strong 2026 rally for the group, with Coherent up 73%, Lumentum up 183%, Ciena up 62%, and Arista up 56% year to date.

InnovestX Securities has unveiled its investment strategy for the fourth quarter of 2026, saying investors need to exercise greater caution amid rising interest rates and high oil prices, which are pressuring inflation, bond yields, and foreign fund flows. The firm set a target for Thailand's benchmark stock index in 2027 at 1,715 points and said the 1,550 level is starting to look attractive for accumulation. It named five top picks: AMATA, CENTEL, CRC, KTB, and PR9. Suthichai Kumworachai, Head of Investment Strategy & Research, said the prolonged conflict between the United States and Iran creates a chain of risk running from oil prices to inflation, the direction of interest rates, financing costs, and the baht. Dr. Piyasak Manasant, Head of Economic Research, kept his forecast for Thai economic growth in 2026 and 2027 at 2.0% while raising his average oil price assumptions for 2026 and 2027 to 90 and 80 US dollars per barrel, respectively. Sitthichai Duangrattanachaya, Head of Investment Strategy, said earnings per share for the Thai stock market have been continuously revised upward, particularly from the energy sector. For overseas investment, he recommended stocks that benefit from AI, namely Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Tencent, and Alibaba, while in the semiconductor group he highlighted Lumentum, Naura, SMIC, and Biren. He also advised diversifying into defensive and dividend stocks. Joranapong Rattanasopha, Head of Investment Product Specialist, recommended the M-SCHD fund, which invests through the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF. SCHD currently has less than 10% exposure to technology stocks, compared with nearly 40% for the S&P 500 index, and the correlation between SCHD and the S&P 500 has fallen to about 0.3, the lowest level since the fund was established in 2011.

Corning, Qualcomm and Lumentum plan to showcase a high-density die to die optical connectivity solution at ECOC 2026. The joint demo targets AI scale up architectures that require higher bandwidth, lower latency and tighter power budgets for chip interconnects, and the ECOC 2026 presentation will highlight massively parallel optical D2D links paired with high density fiber to support advanced AI data centers. The project taps Corning's existing role supplying fiber and optical technology to large infrastructure buyers rather than representing a completely new line of work, positioning its multimode fiber alongside Qualcomm's interface IP and Lumentum's VCSEL engines. The unresolved piece is commercial proof: the clearest early sign that this direction is working will be whether Corning starts pointing to concrete D2D or co packaged optics wins in its AI focused optical order book or in follow on agreements tied to the 2027 to 2032 style long term fiber deals already in place.

Lumentum expects first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenues of $1.225-$1.275 billion and non-GAAP earnings of $4.05-$4.35 per share, following a fiscal fourth-quarter performance in which revenues surged 109.3% year over year to $1.01 billion. Non-GAAP gross margin expanded to 50.4% from 37.8% and operating margin jumped to 36.6% from 15%. The company said Optical Circuit Switch shipments doubled sequentially in the fiscal fourth quarter and it expects its first quarter to generate more than $100 million in OCS revenues, while orders from its largest customer have increased significantly since the earnings call, giving it enough visibility to introduce a fiscal 2028 earnings target of $40 per share. Lumentum began shipping 1.6T transceivers in the fiscal fourth quarter and expects adoption to accelerate through calendar 2027, and it said 200G EMLs already account for more than 25% of EML revenues. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 earnings stands at $21.30 per share, up 17.3% over the past 60 days, while the consensus mark for first-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $4.22 per share, up 18.5% over the past 60 days.

Lumentum reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 non-GAAP earnings of $3.23 per share, up 267% year over year and beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8.03%, while revenues surged 109.3% year over year to $1.01 billion and topped the consensus mark by 1.79%. Within that total, components revenues were $649.4 million, up 21.8% sequentially and 102.7% year over year, and systems revenues reached $356.9 million, rising 29.7% sequentially and 122.6% year over year, as cloud and artificial intelligence demand drove record cloud transceiver shipments and the company began shipping 1.6T transceivers. Non-GAAP gross margin was 50.4%, up 250 basis points sequentially and 1,260 basis points from 37.8% a year ago, and non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 36.6%, up 440 basis points sequentially and 2,160 basis points from 15.0% in the year-ago quarter, with non-GAAP operating profit of $368.8 million. For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Lumentum guided revenues to between $1.225 billion and $1.275 billion, a $1.25 billion midpoint implying more than 130% year-over-year growth and another quarterly record, with non-GAAP operating margin of 39.5% to 40.5% and non-GAAP earnings of $4.05 to $4.35 per share. The company ended the quarter with $2.74 billion in cash and short-term investments, down $433.9 million sequentially, after reducing convertible debt by $1.1 billion, or roughly 35% of outstanding convertible debt, and spent $167 million on capital expenditures to expand cloud and AI manufacturing capacity.

Fabrinet is experiencing accelerating demand for high-speed optical connectivity as hyperscalers expand AI and cloud data-center infrastructure, with data-center revenues surging 68% year over year to $669 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, accounting for 51% of total revenues. The company's DCI business has an annualized revenue run rate exceeding $1 billion, and it has delivered 12 consecutive quarters of record revenues. Fabrinet is expanding manufacturing capacity, with Building 10 in Chonburi expected to add roughly $3-$3.5 billion in revenue capacity, potentially lifting total capacity to $8.5-$9.3 billion. However, it faces tough competition from Lumentum Holdings, whose systems revenues jumped 123% year over year to $357 million, and Applied Optoelectronics, which saw data-center revenues surge 140.4% to $107.7 million. Fabrinet shares have plunged 10.5% year to date, underperforming the sector's 18.2% growth, and trade at a forward P/E of 21.14X. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Fabrinet's earnings is $4.19 per share, suggesting 43.49% growth, and the stock holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Citi told clients in a note Tuesday that it expects semiconductor stocks to rebound after a summer slump, arguing that a heavy conference schedule and resilient data center demand should support the sector. The bank noted the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 18% over the summer as the group ran into high expectations and a modest deceleration in earnings momentum. Even so, Citi looks for a recovery heading into its Global TMT conference, where it expects positive commentary led by AMD, MRVL, LITE, ALAB, and semi caps. Data center demand remains strong, accounting for 34% of the industry's total addressable market, while autos and industrials, at 21%, continue to recover. Demand from PCs and handsets, which make up 42% of the market, is said to remain weak amid memory cost inflation and supply constraints. The bank turned more bullish on central processing units after recent earnings and the Hot Chips conference, lifting its CPU market forecast to $237 billion by 2030 from $29 billion in 2025, a 52% compound annual growth rate, above forecasts from AMD, Arm and Nvidia. Citi expects AMD to be the key beneficiary of what it called a "CPU renaissance," with Intel a secondary winner. Furthermore, Citi raised its outlook for wafer fabrication equipment spending, citing a stronger hyperscaler capital expenditure model, now seeing a 2028 bull case approaching $300 billion, with base-case spending of $257 billion, up from $250 billion previously.

The global optical transceiver market is being reshaped by AI and high-speed networking, with NVIDIA committing $2 billion to Lumentum and Marvell planning to acquire Celestial AI for up to $5.5 billion. These investments highlight the surging demand for high-bandwidth connectivity from hyperscale AI infrastructures. Domestic manufacturing capacity is expanding in the U.S., and government policies are expediting procurement for AI-integrated optical communications. Lumentum Holdings closed at $914.76, up 2.2%, while Wiwynn rose 9.9% to NT$7,800.00 and Ruijie Networks fell 6.3% to CN¥119.37. In other moves, Microsoft expanded its collaboration with HUMAIN to offer an AI productivity bundle targeting one million users in the Middle East and Africa.

Lumentum Holdings has received a multibillion-dollar AI-driven investment that includes a sizeable stake from NVIDIA, and announced plans for a new U.S.-based photonics fabrication facility focused on 800 Gbps and 1.6 Tbps optical interconnects for data infrastructure. The investment supports Lumentum's role as a supplier of core networking components for AI workloads, aligning with growing demand from hyperscale data center operators and governments. However, it does not resolve key risks such as dependence on a small set of hyperscale customers and pressure from lower-margin cloud modules. Investors will watch for concrete metrics like capacity additions, product mix, and margins in upcoming earnings and guidance updates across 2026 and 2027, particularly progress on 800G and 1.6T interconnect volumes and utilization of the new U.S. facility.

A new BCC Research pulse report reveals that AI-driven demand for 400G, 800G, and 1.6T connectivity is accelerating photonics investment, highlighted by NVIDIA's $2 billion investment in Lumentum and Marvell's planned acquisition of Celestial AI for up to $5.5 billion. The report, titled "AI Impact on Optical Transceiver Market," examines how AI workload expansion, strategic corporate investment, and government digital infrastructure mandates are reshaping procurement priorities and technology roadmaps. Hyperscale AI infrastructure is the primary demand engine, with optimized transceiver-enabled architectures reducing GPU idle time from over 30% to below 15%. Domestic manufacturing capacity is scaling rapidly, with Applied Optoelectronics announcing a $150 million expansion in Texas and Lumentum investing in a new U.S. fabrication facility. Government policies across the U.S., EU, China, Japan, and India are accelerating procurement timelines, while emerging technologies like co-packaged optics and Celestial AI's Photonic Fabric, targeting 16 Tbps solutions, are redefining the performance frontier. Coherent Corp. flagged revenue growth exceeding 22% year-over-year and earnings per share growth of 2.8x, driven by AI data center exposure.

Networking is replacing raw computing power as the main constraint on artificial intelligence performance as AI systems grow larger and more complex, according to Citi analysts following the second day of the Hot Chips conference. The shift creates a particularly positive outlook for Nvidia, Broadcom, Arista Networks, Lumentum, Coherent, Marvell Technology, and Astera Labs, Citi said. The analysts noted that the first wave of AI infrastructure development focused heavily on faster GPUs, larger accelerators, and greater training capacity, but as AI systems expand toward trillions of parameters, larger context windows, and autonomous agent workloads, efficiently moving data between chips, servers, racks, and data centers is becoming a bigger bottleneck. Citi said presentations from Nvidia, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Alphabet's Google, Samsung, and other companies pointed toward the same trend, with the future AI winner being the company that can move data most efficiently throughout the entire system. Memory is also increasingly part of the networking challenge, as technologies from Samsung, XCENA, and Cerebras aim to keep data closer to processing, reducing communication overhead. Citi highlighted Nvidia's concept of future data centers as "AI factories," designed around data flows rather than servers, which could shift more AI infrastructure value toward companies optimizing the entire data movement stack.

Coherent Corp. reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenues of $2.05 billion, up 34% year over year and 13% sequentially, driven by its Datacenter & Communications segment, which surged 59% to $1.62 billion and now accounts for nearly 79% of total revenue. GAAP gross margin expanded 277 basis points to 38.5%, and adjusted operating margin rose 381 basis points to 21.8%. Management guided first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue to $2.2-$2.4 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $1.85-$2.05. However, Industrial revenue fell 16% to $431 million, increasing reliance on datacenter spending. Among peers, Lumentum Holdings posted fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $1.01 billion, more than doubling year over year, while Applied Optoelectronics reported second-quarter revenue of $191.9 million, up 86%. Coherent's stock has gained 226.5% over the past year, trading at a forward P/E of 31.55X versus the industry's 21.17X, and carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

AXT, Inc. is expanding its supply agreements with major customers, improving visibility into future InP shipments and potentially supporting revenue growth. The company's second-quarter 2026 results showed backlog exceeding $100 million, with coverage extending into 2027 through both backlog and long-term supply agreements. AXT's agreements with Casela and Coherent further reinforce this pipeline: Casela committed to approximately $25.4 million of InP wafer purchases for 2027, with at least 80% of the committed quantity subject to purchase, while Coherent agreed to a three-year development and supply arrangement for 6-inch InP wafers, backed by a $22.3 million prepayment. In July, AXT signed a long-term agreement with Lumentum covering minimum annual InP capacity commitments through December 2031, with an initial $43.5 million deposit and a second $43.5 million deposit to be determined during 2028. These agreements are particularly meaningful because customer demand already exceeds AXT's available InP capacity, while the company is expanding production and developing higher-value 6-inch substrates. According to the Zacks Consensus Estimate, AXTI's revenues are projected to reach $217.6 million in 2026. The expansion of supply agreements could further enhance revenue visibility, as it will boost production capacity and convert contracted demand into actual shipments.

On August 27, the A-share CPO concept climbed steadily during the session. Sai MicroElectronics hit a 20-centimeter limit up, Qingshan Paper and Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable sealed limit up, while Changxin Bochuang, Focuslight Technologies, and Kingshine Electronic rose more than 10 percent. Changyingtong, Hengtong Optic-Electric, and several other stocks also strengthened. On the news front, after the U.S. market close on August 26 Eastern Time, Nvidia reported better-than-expected earnings. Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 reached 96.2 billion dollars, up 106 percent year on year and above the market estimate of 92.38 billion dollars. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 2.22 dollars, up 120 percent year on year. Data center revenue was 89 billion dollars, also beating market expectations. On guidance, Nvidia expects third-quarter fiscal revenue to reach a midpoint of 108 billion dollars, up nearly 90 percent year on year and above the analyst estimate of 105.15 billion dollars. Adjusted gross margin is expected to be between 73.5 percent and 74.5 percent. The earnings call also revealed that Nvidia will work with Amazon Web Services to deploy an additional 2 million GPUs across AWS global infrastructure from 2027 to 2028, and expects fiscal 2028 revenue to grow about 70 percent. In addition, Nvidia announced full mass production of its Spectrum-X Ethernet photonics switching platform, marking the move of CPO solutions from technology validation to large-scale manufacturing. Overseas supply chain companies Lumentum and Coherent also disclosed shipment plans for CPO products. Several brokerages gave an optimistic outlook on China's optical communications sector, believing that investment sentiment in AI infrastructure continues to rise.

The Board of Investment (BOI) expects Thailand to receive a new wave of investment within the next 3-5 years from the AI, semiconductor, smart vehicle, and smart electronics supply chains. BOI Secretary-General Narit Therdsteerasukdi stated at the Thailand Focus 2026 event that Thailand remains a key destination for foreign direct investment in Asia. He added that a national semiconductor strategy will be proposed in early September, along with efforts to develop human resources, build new supply chains, and enhance business convenience through the Thailand Fast Pass program. The BOI targets GDP growth of at least 3% per year by 2035 and aims to rank among the world's top 20 in competitiveness by 2030. Meanwhile, Infineon Technologies is building a new backend plant in Thailand that will be nearly twice the size of its largest hub, and Lumentum has expanded its workforce in Thailand from a few hundred people eight years ago to 9,000, with plans to reach 10,000 soon, making Thailand the company's largest production base globally.

Zacks Equity Research highlights Dell Technologies, Celestica, Lumentum Holdings, and Vertiv Holdings as four stocks positioned to benefit from AI data center expansion beyond chipmakers. Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms are expected to spend roughly $720 billion to $745 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, with a large portion directed toward AI infrastructure. Dell reported record quarterly revenues of $43.84 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, up 88% year over year, and raised its AI server revenue expectations for fiscal 2027 to about $60 billion. Celestica's second-quarter 2026 revenues jumped 62% year over year to $4.70 billion, and it raised its full-year 2026 revenue outlook to $20.5 billion from $19 billion. Lumentum's fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 net revenues reached a record $1.01 billion, more than doubling from $480.7 million a year earlier, and NVIDIA committed to invest $2 billion in the company. Vertiv's second-quarter 2026 revenues increased 24% year over year to $3.27 billion, and it raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance range to $13.8-$14.2 billion from $13.5-$14 billion.

Investors are rotating beyond Nvidia toward exchange-traded funds that capture the optical connectivity layer of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Global demand for AI-focused optical transceivers is projected to reach $26 billion by the end of 2026, a 57% year-over-year surge, according to TrendForce, while Yole Group projects the global optical transceiver market to hit $112.3 billion by 2031. The Roundhill Photonics & Optics ETF, ticker LYTE, generated $72 million in trading volume on its first day, surpassing the opening-day volume of the DRAM ETF at about $69.5 million. Among the funds highlighted, LYTE has gained 12.6% since its August 6, 2026 launch, the Tema Photonics & Optical ETF, ticker LAZR, has soared 33.9% over the past month, and the Corgi Lithography & Semiconductor Photonics ETF, ticker EUV, has rallied 14.5% over the past month.

Nvidia has moved its Spectrum-X co-packaged optics switches into mass production, with GF Securities projecting shipments to surge from 15,000 units in 2026 to 100,000 in 2027. The ramp is part of Nvidia's push to capture more AI-system spending beyond GPUs, as networking becomes a critical bottleneck in large AI clusters. TSMC has substantially expanded its CPO testing and inspection capacity, notably adding Insertion 2/3 capacity, according to GF Securities analyst Alicia Xia. Nvidia's NVL576-based scale-up systems using CPO or near-packaged optics are expected to begin adoption in the second half of 2027. Amazon's Trainium 4 is also expected to adopt near-packaged optics and Nvidia's NVLink Fusion, potentially extending Nvidia's technology into custom AI infrastructure, benefiting suppliers including Lumentum, Coherent, Semtech, Marvell, and Tower Semiconductor.

AI networking stocks surged on Monday after a Mizuho research note pointed to accelerating demand across the AI high-speed interconnect layer. Marvell Technology rose 7.8% to $239.33, Credo Technology gained 8.3% to $281.48, and Ciena climbed 5.18% to $451. The note, published Sunday, cited a strong VR200 ramp as positive for near-package optics, co-packaged optics, and NVIDIA's Spectrum-X, and flagged Dell, Credo, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Lumentum as 2027 earnings beneficiaries. Mizuho also projected CoWoS advanced packaging capacity growth of more than 75% in 2027, which would ease supply constraints on Marvell's custom AI silicon programs. Recent 13F filings showed heavy institutional interest, including Gavin Baker's Atreides Management holding concentrated positions across Credo, Ciena, and Astera Labs.

Lumentum Holdings reported fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter results that crushed analyst expectations, with revenue jumping 109% year over year to just over $1 billion and adjusted earnings per share rising nearly 3.7 times to $3.23. The company guided for current-quarter revenue of $1.25 billion, up 134% year over year, and adjusted earnings per share of $4.20, up from $1.10 a year earlier. Rosenblatt Securities estimates optical component production capacity will increase 12 times between 2025 and 2030, yet supply will still trail demand by 50% in 2030. Goldman Sachs expects the optical networking market's revenue to increase ninefold to $154 billion by 2028. Lumentum stock has gained 140% in 2026 and trades at 42 times forward earnings, with consensus estimates projecting earnings per share of $45.98 in three years.

AXT soared again on Monday to lead optics stocks, with Coherent and Lumentum rallying on indium phosphide price hikes. AXT climbed 13.71% intraday to $92.83, extending a year-to-date gain of 399.33%, while Coherent rose 8.12% and Lumentum added 6.79%. The catalyst was a United Daily News report of Q4 indium phosphide substrate price increases topping 10%, the largest on record, versus earlier expectations of 3% to 5%. AXT's Q2 2026 revenue hit $47.6 million, up 164% year over year, with indium phosphide revenue at a record $30.7 million and non-GAAP gross margin of 45.0%. Coherent guided fiscal Q1 revenue to $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion, and Lumentum guided Q1 revenue to roughly $1.25 billion. WOLF climbs 6% Monday as a Mizuho note flags strong VR200 NVL72 ramps, adding a power-supply tailwind to the broader optics surge. NVIDIA disclosed a $3 billion stake in Coherent equal to nearly 5% of its 13F portfolio, and D.E. Shaw holds 2.25 million AXTI shares.

Lumentum Holdings, recommended by 24/7 Wall St. at $83.85, now trades around $926 per share after its fiscal Q4 2026 earnings report showed revenue of $1.0063 billion, up 109.3% year over year, and non-GAAP EPS of $3.23 versus a $2.97 consensus. The company guided Q1 FY27 revenue to a midpoint of $1.25 billion, more than a quarter ahead of its own target model, and management said pump lasers are effectively sold out with a four-fold increase in shipments expected over the next several quarters and market share in the 70-80% range. Lumentum also said co-packaged optics demand from its largest customer, NVIDIA, is landing in the second half of 2027, and near-package optics is completely additive, expanding its total addressable market. Separately, Marvell Technology is seen as a key design partner for Microsoft's Maya 300 custom accelerator, which is reportedly targeting 300,000 chips in 2027, and Marvell management has told investors custom revenue is on track to more than double year over year in FY2028, tracking toward a long-term target of over $10 billion in custom revenue in fiscal 2029.

AI infrastructure stocks edged higher in pre-market trading on Monday after Anthropic's second quarter revenue surged to $11.5B, nearly two-and-a-half times the first quarter's $4.7B figure. The Dario Amodei-led firm also recorded positive adjusted operating income for the first time. Memory and storage companies rose, with Micron Technology up 3%, Seagate Technology up 2.5%, Sandisk up 3.5%, Western Digital up 2.6%, and Nasdaq newcomer SK Hynix up 3%. Networking stocks were mostly higher, with Lumentum Holdings, Ciena, and Corning all up 1.5%, while Applied Optoelectronics and Coherent both increased 1.7%. Chipmakers were modestly higher, with Intel and Nvidia both up about 0.7%, after Nvidia slashed its financial backing for a massive OpenAI data center project in Ohio from $250B to less than $120B. The largest hyperscalers were mixed, with Oracle down 1.1%, Microsoft down 0.7%, Google up 0.2%, and Amazon up 1.4%.

Nvidia announced that its Spectrum-X Ethernet silicon photonics switches have entered full mass production, driving a broad rally in A-share CPO concept stocks. On August 17, Jones Tech scored a second consecutive 20 percent daily limit, while T&S Communications and TZTEK Technology rose more than 10 percent. Gongjin Electronics and Tianyang New Materials hit their daily limits, and Shijia Photons and TFC Communication followed higher. The switch is the world's first 200 gigabit per lane CPO Ethernet switch system to enter mass production, cutting the number of lasers to one quarter of traditional designs, reducing power consumption to one fifth, lowering optical loss from about 22 decibels to about 4 decibels, and improving signal integrity by 64 times. Among overseas suppliers, Lumentum expects scale-up products to begin volume shipments in the second half of 2027, while Coherent's scale-out CPO will start contributing revenue in the second half of this year. Both Guolian Minsheng Securities and Sinolink Securities are bullish on the industry opportunities from accelerating CPO adoption.

Nvidia is deploying its surging free cash flow into strategic investments, committing at least $6.5 billion to photonics companies including $2 billion each for Lumintum (LITE), Coherent Corporation (COHR), and Marvell Technology (MRVL), plus $500 million for Corning (GLW). The chipmaker also reportedly plans to invest up to $3 billion in privately held Lancium, an energy and data center infrastructure company backed by Blackstone, taking an initial 20% stake for $2 billion with a potential additional $1 billion tied to performance targets. Lancium owns the 1.2-gigawatt Lancium Clean Campus in Abilene, Texas, site of the $500 billion Stargate project. Nvidia's free cash flow has grown from $3.8 billion in fiscal 2023 to $96.67 billion in fiscal 2026, and the company is working with Blackstone, BlackRock, Apollo, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to mobilize over $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure.

Intel priced an upsized $20 billion public stock offering this week, selling over 210 million shares at $95 each and expecting net proceeds of about $19.7 billion to fund AI-related growth opportunities. Super Micro Computer closed 19% higher on Wednesday after issuing fiscal first-quarter guidance well above Wall Street forecasts, while Lumentum rose 14% on strong fiscal fourth-quarter results and outlook. Workday jumped nearly 18% on Thursday after Reuters reported private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to buy the software company, with Needham analysts estimating a potential takeover price of $240 to $250 per share. NVIDIA confirmed it is working with a consortium of lenders including Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to raise $500 billion for AI infrastructure, signing a memorandum of understanding to establish first-of-their-kind compute financing platforms at global scale. AMD filed a mixed shelf debt offering that could raise up to $5 billion in four tranches, and Argus upgraded Sandisk to Buy from Hold with a $1,600 price target.

Nine of the ten notable S&P 500 companies reporting earnings this week topped consensus EPS estimates, with nine also posting year-over-year earnings growth. Revenue momentum held firm as eight companies beat Wall Street expectations and all ten achieved year-over-year top-line expansion. Among the standouts, Super Micro Computer surged 19.02% after guiding first-quarter revenue to $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion, while Lumentum Holdings jumped 13.6% on a 109% revenue increase to $1.01 billion. Tapestry slipped 16.49% despite a fiscal fourth-quarter beat and in-line fiscal 2027 outlook, and Cisco Systems dropped 8.40% even as product orders rose 35% year over year.

Coherent and Lumentum both reported strong quarterly results as AI data centers shift from copper to optical connectivity. Coherent posted revenue of $2.045 billion, up 33.7% year over year, with its Datacenter & Communications segment contributing $1.615 billion, or 79% of sales, and non-GAAP EPS of $1.74, a 7.60% beat. Lumentum revenue hit $1.006 billion, up 109.3% year over year, with non-GAAP gross margin reaching 50.4%, a 1,260 basis point jump, and operating margin expanding 2,160 basis points to 36.6%. Coherent guided Q1 FY27 revenue to $2.20 billion to $2.40 billion, while Lumentum guided to $1.225 billion to $1.275 billion with operating margin of 39.5% to 40.5%. Coherent is doubling internal indium phosphide output by year-end and again by 2027, with up to $50 million in CHIPS Act funding, while Lumentum has an OCS backlog above $400 million.

Ping An STAR 50 ETF rose 2.39% to 1.29 yuan, while the SSE STAR 50 Index gained 2.23%. In news, US optical communications giants have been releasing earnings. Lumentum forecast first-quarter net revenue for fiscal 2027 in a range of 1.23 billion to 1.28 billion US dollars, above market estimates of 1.15 billion. Coherent Corp guided next-quarter revenue to a midpoint of 2.3 billion dollars, higher than analysts' expectations of 2.14 billion. China Galaxy Securities believes that recent capacity expansions and private placements among related manufacturers signal that the optical chip capacity bottleneck is being systematically resolved. With mass shipments of 800G and 1.6T optical modules and the evolution of silicon photonics and CPO and NPO technology paths, the profitability of the optical communications sector is expected to improve at the margin.

Overseas optical communications leader Lumentum posted results that beat expectations, with fourth-quarter net revenue of 1.01 billion US dollars, and gave strong guidance for the first quarter, projecting net revenue of 1.23 billion to 1.28 billion US dollars, far above the market estimate of 1.15 billion US dollars. The company said demand for 1.6T transceiver modules will accelerate from the first fiscal quarter and continue through 2027, driven by AI cluster deployments at leading hyperscale cloud customers. Domestically, the explosion in AI computing power continues to drive demand for optical modules, with 800G optical modules becoming fully mainstream and high-end 1.6T optical modules entering a phase of volume delivery. The first fully domestically produced 100,000-card AI supercluster was recently put into operation, marking a new stage of 100,000-card-level computing infrastructure and further solidifying downstream demand in the communications industry chain. As of 10:22 on August 13, the CSI Communication Services Index was up 2.96 percent, and the Communication ETF Southern that tracks the index was trading actively.

Overseas optical communications leader Lumentum posted results that beat expectations, with fourth-quarter net revenue of 1.01 billion dollars, and gave strong guidance for the first quarter, projecting net revenue of 1.23 billion to 1.28 billion dollars, well above the market estimate of 1.15 billion dollars. The company said demand for 1.6T transceiver modules will accelerate from the first fiscal quarter and continue through 2027, driven by AI cluster deployments at leading hyperscale cloud customers. Domestically, the explosion in AI computing power continues to drive demand for optical modules, with 800G optical modules now widely adopted and high-end 1.6T optical modules entering a phase of volume delivery. The first fully domestically produced 100,000-card AI supercluster was recently put into operation, marking a new stage in computing infrastructure at the 100,000-card level and further solidifying downstream demand across the communications industry chain. As of 10:22 on August 13, the CSI Communication Services Index was up 2.96 percent, and the Communication ETF Southern that tracks the index was trading actively.

Kechuang 100 ETF Penghua rose more than 2.3% intraday, lifted by better-than-expected earnings from a US optical communications giant and clinical progress in innovative drugs, driving gains in optical communications and biopharmaceutical sectors. Lumentum forecast first-quarter net revenue for fiscal 2027 in a range of 1.23 billion to 1.28 billion US dollars, above the market estimate of 1.15 billion dollars. Coherent Corp guided next-quarter revenue at a midpoint of 2.3 billion dollars, higher than analysts' expectation of 2.14 billion dollars. In pharmaceuticals, several drugmakers disclosed new clinical advances in innovative drugs, with self-developed products spanning small molecules, peptides, biologics, siRNA, PROTAC and other technology types achieving phased breakthroughs. As of 10:14 on August 13, 2026, the SSE STAR 100 Index surged 2.56%, while Kechuang 100 ETF Penghua rose 2.36% to 1.86 yuan. Xiangcai Securities noted that innovative drug overseas expansion and value realization have become the core focus, suggesting attention to biotech companies with specific innovative drug technology platforms, integrated pharmaceutical firms, and upstream CXO and research reagent providers in the innovative drug supply chain.

AI infrastructure stocks surged on Wednesday after blowout results from AI server hardware maker Supermicro and neocloud providers CoreWeave and Nebius Group. Nebius stock surged after quarterly revenue topped analyst expectations, while Supermicro reported fourth quarter results that beat analyst estimates on earnings and issued an upbeat forecast that sent shares higher by more than 6%. AI hosting peers Applied Digital and IREN also moved higher after CoreWeave posted quarterly results highlighting accelerating demand and a surging backlog. Lumentum shares gained after the maker of optical and photonic products for data centers posted fiscal fourth quarter revenue that more than doubled to $1.01 billion, and peers Coherent and Ciena both jumped. The memory and storage complex also rose, with the Roundhill Memory ETF up 4%, SanDisk up 4%, and Micron and SK Hynix each up 4%.

Several technology and consumer companies made significant premarket moves following earnings reports and guidance updates. Super Micro Computer rallied more than 7.5% after issuing first-quarter guidance for adjusted earnings of $1.01 to $1.10 per share on revenue of $14.5 billion to $15.5 billion, both well above consensus estimates. CoreWeave gained more than 18.5% as second-quarter revenue rose 112% to $2.58 billion and adjusted operating income margin reached 5%, exceeding forecasts. Nebius Group jumped more than 12.5% on better-than-expected EBITDA and revenue, while Lumentum Holdings rose more than 8% after beating fourth-quarter estimates. H&R Block surged 11% on an upbeat fiscal 2027 outlook, and Cava Group added almost 12% after topping earnings and revenue expectations. In contrast, Kontoor Brands fell nearly 3% on a slight revenue miss, and software stocks including Workday, Salesforce, Palantir Technologies, and ServiceNow each declined more than 1%.