$GLW Citi fireside chat debrief:
$20B annualized sales run rate expected in Q3, one quarter early. Q3 is tracking at the high end or slightly above the July guide, with Q4 expected to exceed Q3.
High-teens YoY growth is expected to continue into 2027, with EPS growing faster than sales.
The new Verizon agreement is multi-year and multi-billion-dollar. Add Lumen and Zayo, and the previous $1B annual DCI opportunity should arrive much sooner than the end of the decade. Management already believes the opportunity is bigger.
Orders are rising, customer visibility extends 2-3 years and several LTAs include cash to build and reserve capacity. Great demand signal.
Scale-out drives the current growth. At roughly 130,000 GPUs, clusters require an added network layer and more fiber.
Early scale-up activity could begin around late 2027 and 2028, with the larger adoption inflection developing over the following several years.
They plan to build a $10B NPO/CPO business from essentially zero by decade-end. Initial sales could begin next year.
Fiber production capacity is targeted to rise 50% and connectivity capacity 10x.
Existing products like polarization-maintaining fiber and fiber-array units should drive CPO growth through 2030. GlassBridge becomes a post-2030 opportunity.
Operating margin reached 20% ahead of schedule. Better utilization, mix and pricing should keep pushing margins higher.
Excellent chat.
NFA