Repeat orders and larger new-customer orders are driving SmartOptics' growth. Q3 revenue rose 80% and EBIT 340%, with strong cash flow. Ciena and Nokia are busy serving hyperscalers; SmartOptics should scoop up all other smaller customers. Its 300M revenue target by 2030 suggests more growth. x.com 

Smartoptics is an underfollowed optics play that could double in the next month or two based on peer comparisons. Sales likely reach $300M by 2028, and while most peers trade at 5-10x 2028 sales, Smartoptics trades at 1.5x. It is already profitable, has a strong balance sheet and is growing very fast. x.com 

Smartoptics' Q1 one-time cost signals management sees structural demand. The $0.5M charge was not a relocation from Oslo but a capacity expansion in Kista, Stockholm, where it has operated for years: 4,100 sqm of lab, warehouse and training space on a seven-year lease. Management signed it in July 2025, before Q1's 59.6% revenue growth, and you do not commit to seven years of extra capacity unless you believe demand is structural. x.com 

Optics and photonics should be among AI's biggest winners as faster GPU networks need optical connections that suppliers cannot expand quickly enough. Lumentum says some components are sold out through early 2029; Sivers is investing $30M to target more than 100M lasers a year, with operations expected in Q4 2027. Potential US restrictions on Chinese transceivers could reshape supply in 2027. Applied Optoelectronics and Sivers are the favorites. x.com  x.com 

Networking is the next AI hardware trade after memory, whose share of rack value rose from 15% to 35%. Optics is moving inside the server, as Nvidia's Feynman architecture builds in co-packaged optics and silicon photonics. Scale-across networking could grow 30% a year just linking existing data centers, as inference moves closer to users and training spreads across sites. Supply is tight: Lumentum's CEO said it can meet only 30% of expected 2027 demand and sees optics tighter than memory. x.com 

Applied Optoelectronics guided Q3 revenue sharply higher to $255M-$290M with non-GAAP net income of $10.1M-$24.0M, showing growth turning into profit. It is expanding its Pearland, Texas, campus for 800G and 1.6T modules, and management expects orders to outstrip capacity through mid-2027. Its US-based, diversified manufacturing positions it for shifts away from Chinese optical modules, and as 800G shipments more than doubled in Q2, non-GAAP gross margin reached 29.8%. x.com 

Boring middle-power suppliers like SmartOptics could do really well over the next three years because hyperscalers have locked up supply chains several levels down, so second- and third-tier vendors serving the non-AI economy benefit disproportionately. With Ciena and others sold out, ISPs rely on SmartOptics to connect data centers and cities. x.com 

Nvidia's Q1 FY27 results materially improve demand visibility across the optics, networking and photonics stack. Revenue hit $81.6B, up 85%, with networking at $14.8B, up 199%, and Nvidia named multi-year optics deals with Coherent, Corning and Lumentum plus a Marvell partnership on NVLink Fusion and silicon photonics. AI cloud, industrial and enterprise revenue grew 31% sequentially versus 12% for hyperscale, so the buildout is spreading. Vera Rubin ramps in Q3. x.com 

STMicroelectronics offers rare asymmetry for a large cap: a bear case in line with the S&P 500, a slightly better base case and a wildly better bull case. 2026 marked an inflection in its data-center business, with a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar Amazon agreement and guidance raised from $1B before 2030 to well above $2B in 2027. A base case with a modest AI business implies 15% annual growth through 2030; if photonics, power and robotics reach a third of revenue, 30-50%. x.com  x.com  x.com 

AI networking and optics growth underpins an extremely bullish outlook for Lumentum, Coherent, Marvell, Credo, Astera Labs and Broadcom. BofA estimates AI networking will grow from $95.6B in 2026 to $394B in 2030, with optical reaching $111B and co-packaged and near-packaged optics reaching $14.1B and $10.7B. Photonics is one of the most interesting investment themes for 2027 onward, though it is a complex market with many players. x.com