This week, we move from optics technology to optics companies. We walk the AI optical supply chain from bottom to top. Main debate: Who has a moat? Who is already priced for perfection? *Not investment advice, do your own due diligence*

AXTI - Indium phosphide substrate supplier. Critical bottleneck in the laser stack. Major China export-control risk. Massive stock run vs thin earnings.

Tower Semiconductor - Leading silicon photonics foundry. 5x capacity expansion with customer prepayments. Strong process lock-in. Pure-play optics exposure.

GlobalFoundries - 300mm monolithic photonics platform + Chips Act support. Optics growing fast but still small piece of overall business.

Lumentum - Dominant EML laser supplier. Explosive AI demand. Strong technical moat. Valuation and capex sensitivity are key risks.

Coherent - Vertically integrated from substrate to module. 6-inch InP push could lower costs structurally. Execution and margin mix matter.

Fabrinet - Optics assembly partner. High NVIDIA exposure. Scales with industry, but dependent on upstream supply.

Corning - AI data centers require far more fiber than traditional cloud. $6B Meta deal adds visibility. Timing of scale-up optics is the swing factor.

Timestamps
00:01 Intro
06:59 AXT $AXTI
13:38 Tower Semiconductor $TSEM
23:58 GlobalFoundries $GFS
32:43 Lumentum $LITE
39:38 Coherent $COHR
47:09 Fabrinet $FN
54:07 Corning $GLW

Austin's Substack: https://www.chipstrat.com/

Vik's Substack: https://www.viksnewsletter.com/

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