MACOM is a hold amid the AI sector sell-off: its investment in IQE de-risks operations a lot, but Coherent and Lumentum are better ways to play the 800G and 1.6T transition. x.com 

Networking, power and compute look more durable than cyclical memory in the AI buildout. Lumentum's revenue compounded year after year across the 2010s and 2020s, unlike Micron's; AWS revenue also compounded. Lumentum, Nebius, Bloom Energy and Credo should heavily outperform SanDisk and Micron from here, though AI itself remains heavily doubted. x.com  x.com 

MACOM's product catalogue covers much of the optics area that could benefit from an AI-driven shift in network bottlenecks. Siliconcodesign expects coherent and coherent-lite optics to play a bigger role as AI usage shifts the bottleneck from scale-up bandwidth to data-center networks and internet traffic. This is quite bullish for MACOM longer term. 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 is the US-built option in 800G datacenter transceivers, where there is almost no domestic supply. It is scaling its line in Sugar Land, Texas, while larger Innolight and Eoptolink build in Asia and Lumentum and Coherent are crowded large caps. It also makes its own lasers, which Goldman flags as the binding shortage through 2027. Revenue rose 86% last quarter, with net cash. Risks: a -12% operating margin, concentrated customers, and whether in-house lasers hold at 1.6T. … Show more

MACOM's analog chips sit inside every 800G and 1.6T optical module Nvidia's Rubin needs, so modules cannot ship without it. MACOM is the volume supplier of drivers, TIAs and lasers. Lumentum ships the 200G-per-lane lasers, but MACOM owns share in the driver and TIA beside them, so a Rubin Ultra ramp in H2 2026 scales its optical line without new design wins. At 26x EV/sales and 156x earnings it looks rich, but it alone ships optical, RF and defense analog in volume. x.com  x.com  x.com 

Applied Optoelectronics should trade above $150, in part because Lumentum's CEO says its optical components are sold out through early 2029 and it cannot meet roughly 70% of demand for some products through 2027. That industry signal strengthens the case for AAOI's expanding 800G/1.6T offerings after completion of its $600M ATM, with shares around $110. x.com 

Lumentum and Coherent sit at the center of a multiplicative optical bottleneck, where parts, capacity, yield and customer sign-off each limit output. Next-gen AI clusters need optical interconnect, and McKinsey sees 800G transceiver output 40-60% short of demand through 2027 as the market doubles to $26B in 2026. Nvidia invested $2B each in both to lock in laser supply, and the FCC is drafting curbs on Chinese transceiver imports; Chinese suppliers hold ~60% of optical-component revenue. x.com  … Show more

MACOM is a key optical component supplier for Google's TPUs at a time when Google wants as many TPUs as it can get. The whole supply chain keeps beating quarter after quarter, underpromising and overdelivering on capacity increases, while MACOM is under the radar, underowned and still guiding very conservatively. A high P/E is justified if the market is underestimating future growth, and the stock is setting up to smash; pullbacks are buying opportunities. x.com  x.com  x.com 

Applied Optoelectronics looks set for its next leg as AI data-center transceiver demand outstrips supply. Q2 EPS was $0.06 versus $0.02 expected and revenue rose 86.3% to $191.92M, a fifth straight record. Management guides to about $1.1B of 2026 revenue as a new Texas facility ramps capacity. The stock has formed a rounding bottom since September and is curling back through its 200 EMA; the trigger is $116.90. x.com