Kyocera offers hidden value most Western investors still miss, as Japanese companies clean up balance sheets under Tokyo Stock Exchange pressure. @Blinklebloop puts it at a look-through EV/EBITDA of 6.5x once it finishes selling cross-shareholdings, with broad but indirect exposure to semiconductors, data centers and optics. That second-order exposure means less volatility than a pure play while still joining the capex supercycle, and automotive and printing act as a free hedge. x.com 

Credo is one of the cheapest AI growth stocks, trading around 26x forward earnings after a hard correction while revenue grew 115% to $479M and full-year growth is guided above 85%. Margin worries mostly reflect DustPhotonics amortization and stock comp; non-GAAP gross margin held near 68%. DustPhotonics adds a second engine in optics, with over $600M expected this year, and Credo's low-laser designs can ship through the laser shortage. One customer at about a third of revenue is the main risk. … Show more

Soitec is an attractive name in the photonics supply chain. Per @HyperTechInvest, it trades at 14x forward EV/EBITDA, the lowest among key photonics suppliers, versus 33x for Coherent, 45x for Lumentum and 120x for Applied Optoelectronics. @zephyr_z9 flags a risk of demand destruction in mobile. x.com  x.com 

Low multiples give AI infrastructure good risk/reward as demand outruns supply and agentic workloads have runway. TSMC at 17x 2027E EPS appears to have all the accelerator and CPU demand it can handle this year and next; Ultra Clean is at 8x, MKS 12x, TTM 13x, Nvidia 14x and Celestica 15x. Kioxia at 3x and Samsung preferreds at 2.5x carry a big discount on pricing and cycle fears. Multiples imply a 2027 capex peak and meaningful drop; 2028 capex growth is expected, but below 2027's rate. x.com  … Show more

Lumentum is the only volume supplier of EML lasers for 1.6T optics, capacity is sold out, and indium phosphide fabs do not scale overnight. Qualcomm and Corning partnered with it on 1,060nm VCSEL chip-to-chip links targeting about 10 Tb/s. Revenue grew 109% and it trades at 30.6x forward earnings with $1.07B of net cash; a one-time $7.8B non-cash convert charge hid profitable operations. Risks are convert dilution and Coherent and Broadcom adding InP lasers before the shortage eases. x.com 

SUSS MicroTec is mispriced, with near 100% revenue exposure to leading-edge chip equipment yet EV/revenue multiples a third to a fifth of US semicap majors. About 70% of revenue comes from advanced packaging tools such as temporary and hybrid bonders and 30% from front-end photomask tools; some are monopolies, others hold majority share or are call options. In a big semicap cycle, margins rising from 5% to 25% matter more than 20% to 40%. Its weak 2026 outlook matched sell-side expectations. … Show more

Applied Optoelectronics' operating leverage could be substantial if 800G scales and 1.6T follows, and the market may be underestimating its laser opportunity. 800G volumes are ramping with a major hyperscaler, its backlog more than doubled after $124 million of new orders, and US manufacturing adds a potential tailwind. About 15% short interest and recent dilution add uncertainty to this smaller, more volatile optics play. x.com 

Credo's earnings dip is a second chance, because its pivot toward optical extends the interconnect story beyond 2025. The market focused on gross-margin guidance of 64-66% instead of 68.6%, but revenue tripled year over year to $1.34B, FY27 guidance calls for more than 80% growth, and optical products are expected to exceed $600M next year. x.com 

Semtech's valuation already assumes strong execution, so the stock needs growth to keep pace with a fast-expanding optical market. It is one of the few names with real products across all three AI networking layers, from scale-up copper to scale-out optics chips and, via the HieFo laser deal, scale-across. FY26 data center revenue rose 58% to $223M, with over 50% growth guided for FY27. BofA sees the optical market growing from $14B in 2025 to $73B by 2030, a pace that would ease the multiple. … Show more

Corning's optical connectivity business is set to grow after Nvidia pushed it to expand that manufacturing capacity tenfold, while funds flow back into beaten-down quality names. Per @Venu_7_, optical sales rose 32% to $2.07 billion, EPS is expected to more than triple by 2028, and AI deals with Nvidia, Meta and Amazon back it. The chart retested its 200-day average with an Adam-and-Eve bottom and is breaking a small downtrend line. x.com