GrowthTurtle
Data Science PhD & IEEE Fellow, Ex-Two Sigma
Indium phosphide laser capacity, not demand, now caps how fast 1.6T optics ship, and Coherent owns its laser fabs and grows its own substrate. That makes the InP squeeze Goldman flags through 2027 work in its favor. Record Q4 revenue of $2.05 billion rose 34% as six-inch InP wafers ramped, with 40.2% non-GAAP gross margin and 42%+ guided, at a 0.92 PEG. The risk: with about $3.55 billion of debt and cash burn, it can't absorb a 1.6T ramp slip; six-inch yield at volume is the test. x.com
Coherent is the only vertically integrated Western optics maker with laser, substrate and module under one roof, and the binding constraint in AI optics is the indium-phosphide wafer. Those substrates take years to qualify and supply is tight into 2027, so growing its own matters more than another module line. Revenue rose 34%, with a 0.92 PEG and 8.7x EV/sales. Net debt is about $1.56B while free cash flow is negative, and a faster shift to co-packaged optics could hurt its premium multiple. x.com
Coherent's 6-inch substrate access, yields and margin concerns look mostly like timing issues in the optical buildout. Coherent is now one of the preferred ways to gain exposure and should participate meaningfully, despite those constraints. x.com
Coherent is set up for a strong 2026 as better manufacturing yields and a new product ramp arrive alongside solid guidance. The company says 6-inch production yields more than 3-inch, and its CPO/NPO ramp starts this year. Good Q4 guidance implies a P/E below 50 for 2027. The broader optics and photonics group, including Lumentum and Applied Optoelectronics, looks super bullish. x.com
Applied Optoelectronics has a better chance than Coherent of delivering a 300-400 mW laser with tolerable RIN and linewidth. Its transceiver capacity ramp is also larger and is not gated by Sumitomo's 6-inch InP wafers. Long AAOI against short COHR is an unnecessarily dangerous pair trade idea. x.com
AI bandwidth demand still favors Coherent and Lumentum, but tight customer financing can delay orders and lasting valuations need durable profits. A model provider losing share need not reduce total bandwidth use. Coherent could beat and raise guidance; Lumentum may only meet estimates this quarter, improving next quarter. If margins partly reflect scarce indium phosphide, added supply will test whether upgrades, volume and cost gains sustain earnings. These earnings calls remain forecasts. … Show more
Coherent should benefit as the shift from copper to light inside AI data centers accelerates, with co-packaged optics now in production and near-packaged optics pulling revenue forward. Nvidia's Spectrum-X Photonics switch is in full production, and TrendForce says CPO has entered mass production. Coherent CEO Jim Anderson says CPO and NPO engagement jumped in the past three to six months, nearly every large customer has a project, and its content per socket is similar in either design. x.com
Applied Optoelectronics, Lumentum and Coherent face share losses at US hyperscalers to Innolight. Channel checks favor Innolight gaining share in Q2 2026, at the expense of those three. Per @poezhao0605, a $7B Hong Kong IPO, the largest in years and upsized from $5B on strong demand, has cleared its listing hearing. x.com
Coherent now has credible exposure to almost every optical architecture hyperscalers are exploring, and its Nvidia deal materially de-risks that roadmap. Nvidia's nonexclusive pact adds a multibillion-dollar purchase commitment, a $2B equity investment and access to five CPO product families. First CPO/NPO revenue targeted for H2 2026 matches Nvidia's timing. Data center and communications are already 72% of revenue. Qualification, standards, concentration and margins remain unsettled. x.com
Coherent is getting stronger in the co-packaged optics era, with people on the ground describing its six-inch InP capacity, yields and ramp as really strong. Nvidia has invested $2B directly in the company, which joined the S&P 500 in March. x.com
Lumentum and Coherent face a threat from microLED optics, which could replace laser optics with 20x less power and no temperature sensitivity by late 2027. The use case is short-reach, high-volume links under 30 meters. The copper versus optics debate is a distraction, since every AI cluster needs both and Credo now does both while Applied Optoelectronics handles long-haul; the bigger question is what microLED does to laser makers. x.com x.com
Coherent is becoming the gatekeeper of AI photonics as networking hardware grows as critical and scarce as GPUs. It is the only player to move to 6-inch InP wafers, more than doubling chips per wafer and giving it a cost edge over rivals that buy laser chips, with EML and CW laser capacity set to double in 2026 and again in 2027. Its liquid-cooled XPO optics cut TCO by 20-30%, and its briefing raised its 2030 addressable market to $70B+, including $15B+ for CPO/NPO. x.com
