Earnings Takeaways- Tower Semiconductor (TSEM) • 2Q26 revenue $460mn (+24% YoY), GP +72%, OP +125%; EPS $0.79 a beat, driven by higher utilization, better mix & accelerating silicon photonics demand
• 3Q26 guide: record $520mn (+31% YoY, +13% QoQ) suggests a strong growth 
• The co targets sequential revenue & profit improvement through 2026
• Raised 2026/27 EPS to $4.5 / $10; Maintain Buy, TP $260 (26x 2027E)
• $1.3bn contract SiPho revenue locked for 2027 from hyperscalers
• 2028 wafer order commitments expected to exceed 2027 levels
• Additional new SiPho customer qualifications underway
• Leading specialty foundry for NPO (near-package optics); CPO longer-term
• Capacity ramp focused on Japan Fab 7; NPO volume ramp expected 2H27 #TSEM# #Towersemi#

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.

Morgan Stanley note on CPO today. Key participants include: - $SIVE, $COHR, and $LITE in laser supply - Broadcom and Nvidia in switch platforms - Lightmatter, Ayar Labs, Marvell/Celestial, and POET in optical engines and photonics, - $TSM, $GFS, and $TSEM in silicon photonics foundry capacity I’ve covered all of these before, like Tower Semi. But I’m especially happy that Morgan Stanley validated my research that $SIVE is one of the critical global players in CPO. A small $1.5B laser company next to your two leading $60B+ companies… If you also synthesize Rosenblatt Securities recent note that China laser suppliers were quite far from having CPO lasers. This kinda magnifies importance of the three Western leaders of that laser chokepoint.