AAOI option flow: 2d Call
@170 ?!
Just putting it out there for people that think AAOI is a one year cycle...
$AAOI projects their ELSFP capacity for CPO to be 400K/units a month in 2028.
400k * ~$400 ELS ASP (GS assumptions) = + another ~$1.92B 2028 annualized revenue capacity added as a new distinct (>50% gross margin) product line.
On top of their existing 2027 projections (eg. ~$5.6B annualized transceiver revenue off $471m/month entering H2).
TAM for 1.6T also goes brrr so I'd expect their end of H2 2027 projections to go up as more capacity comes online...
For certain optical names, it's one cycle (eg. 1.6T, CPO scale out/up, NPO etc. ), stacked on top of one another... stacked on top of another... with TAM + margins stacking like minions after Anivia uses W in line.
Rather than one-and-done off of one year.
This is a stark contrast to some other sectors where growth is likely to decelerate after maybe 1 year of triple digit Y/Y revenue growth.
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Wow, there's gem after gem in $AAOI earnings for $SIVE + other laser player readthrough.
1. AAOI not meaningfully participating in CPO first-gen deployments.
"We just can’t make enough of them [CPO lasers] to be involved in their current first-generation [CPO] deployments because there’s just not enough capacity. We have to prioritize our ability to make lasers for our own transceivers first"
So first-gen CPO laser deployments, might even be narrowed down further for Western players like $SIVE, $LITE, $AVGO, and $COHR.
And independent CPO CW laser capacity became more valuable if $AAOI had to turn away more customers...
Also remember Trendforce was talking about $AMD singing CW LTAs? $COHR / $LITE have capacity signed with $NVDA ...
I thought it would be $AAOI, but they might be out of the equation. $MTSI also doesn't look meaningful with early CPO participation (eg. no mention in ER aside from NPO, and removal from Ayar website).
So I wonder who players like $AMD is going to go with for Helios (eg. Sivers + Ayar more likely candidate now)?
Btw, this is not bearish AAOI because they have too much demand for optical transceiver business. Just more bullish on the existing few qualified CPO laser names that have capacity.
2. Demand imbalance and bottleneck for InP lasers / optical transceivers.
AOI's CEO stated kinda supported that when they said: "The customer demand is 20%-40% higher" than expanded built out capacity.
"We are getting this kind of demand from several big customers almost every week. Lasers are the biggest bottleneck right now for the transceiver business"
3. China being years away from having CPO DWDM specification lasers.
I covered this earlier when looking at CPO competition from channel checks.
But AAOI confirming that China is "easily at least two, three years or even longer from having CPO lasers is incredible tread through on defensibility Western laser positioning in the CPO laser chokepoint.
TLDR:
- High demand imbalance for CW lasers and optical transceivers.
- $AAOI not in first-gen CPO due to capacity constraints (not exactly bearish AAOI because they have too much demand for their optical transciver business, but even better news for the few independent players with capacity coming online like $SIVE)
- China years behind in CPO lasers.
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$LITE earnings are out, very strong earnings:
Revenue: $1.01B, +24.5% Q/Q, +109.3% Y/Y growth
vs. ~$984.6M
Adj. EPS: $3.23 vs. ~$2.95
Gross Margin (non-gaap): 50.4% / Operating margin (non-gaap) 36.6%
Q1 FY2027 guidance is probably more important:
Revenue: $1.225–1.275B vs. ~$1.16B
Adj. EPS: $4.05–4.35 vs. ~$3.63
Operating margin (non-gaap) of 39.5% - 40.5%
In terms of notes:
Sees: "Increasing demand for ultra-high-power CPO lasers, an initial order for ELS modules"
- Great read through on other CPO players like $SIVEF, $COHR, and others. (maybe not AAOI since they're missing out on first-gen deployments)
- "Breath of NPO engagements are the first signs that optics are starting to penetrate in-rack connectivity, significantly upping our optical TAM"
- Revenue projections "reaching our target model more than a quarter ahead of schedule."
Extremely strong earnings as expected, you have revenue going from:
$808M -> $1.01B -> $1.25B while operating margin keeps increasing... Just my first impressions.
Most important thing is the earnings call coming up soon.
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I usually make fun of sellside, but Rosenblatt has pretty goated channel checks on optical names, and their reports are one of the few I like talking about.
$AAOI, $LITE, $SIVE, and the laser party has started to recover around the est. timing windows.
eg. last month: "Multiple short sellers told them they will likely close their positions... late July and early August".
They might have missed that they believed $AMD would be $AAOI's first CPO customer... since AAOI said they would be missing from first-gen CPO (maybe future gen?)
But lot of their talking points about China CPO laser positioning (eg. 2-3 years behind) got corroborated word-for-word from AAOI earnings today.
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Two different capacity expansion announcements today across $TSEM and $AAOI.
Tower Semi, supported by the Japanese government, announced expansion of its 300mm Silicon Photonics (SiPho), Silicon Germanium (SiGe), and advanced packaging capabilities.
Targeting $1.2B net profit, and $3.6B revenue in 2028 (with a ~$28B MC, that's ~23.3 2028 forward p/e).
AAOI announced the commencement of its buildout, roughly 400,000 square feet of manufacturing to make 800g/1.6T production go brrr.
The overall expansion is also supported by the local city government in Texas. (they also $20.85M worth of subsidies from the State earlier).
This one isn't exactly as materially new as Tower, since AAOI originally announced these plans before. Just commencement of it.
Regardless, glad to see both of these companies in their Anime training arc phase as they power up.
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Trendforce reports that $AMD is actively trying to secure CW laser supply with multiple major procurement orders...
Is probably just the start of the bottleneck?
There's not much independent capacity in Western supply chains left other than $SIVE or $AAOI and maybe Macom.
Especially after Lumentum/Coherent got locked up with multi-year agreements with Nvidia. (disclosure, own Sive and aaoi)
Lumentum is already CW laser constrained and is likely buying off Japanese companies like Sumitomo/Furukawa if I had to guess per ER, and those are probably running at max capacity.
From the Trendforce report, this is:
"to ensure that its future capacity will not be constrained by NVIDIA and other major Cloud Service Providers (CSPs)."
I wouldn't be surprised if other hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and others saw Nvidia / AMD signing LTAs, and are trying to secure capacity next.
A lot of it is game theory on not getting choked out by competitors, and looks like AMD is tipping the first domino after Nvidia.
But my opinion is that this just goes and show how invaluable this CW laser chokepoint is and the companies are inside it.
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New reports that $AMD is scrambling for CW laser supply.
And is negotiating large-scale purchase orders for CW Lasers to ensure its production capacity is not constrained by $NVDA (Trendforce)
Obvious CW laser beneficiaries:
- $SIVE (AMD went to GFS for CPO, Sivers reference laser level)
- $AAOI (Rosenblatt analyst checks)
Lumentum/Coherent are kinda booked out way into 2028 as well.
Lumentum is especially constrained for CW capacity already from existing EML contracts (so they probably are buying from Sumitomo/Furukawa and co).
Maybe Macom and Japanese giants still have spare capacity. (disclosure, own aaoi/sivers).
I predicted this last year and said hyperscalers should go more upstream to secure capacity... at laser levels, epiwafer levels, or even inp substrate levels.
To not get bottlenecked by Nvidia.
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