Orbital AI data centers favor optical suppliers with space heritage, making MACOM the top pick, Tower Semiconductor a buy, and STMicroelectronics and Coherent holds. MACOM gains from heritage and content per terminal that grows superlinearly toward 6.4T-12.8T. STMicroelectronics owns the permanent PAT control-loop socket. Coherent gets incremental free-space optics demand, though not transformative. Tower wins on radiation tolerance, with rising value per PIC. x.com

