Coherent is a top AI-infrastructure pick: data center/communications is ~75-80% of revenue; raw indium phosphide laser output caps growth, is up 80% y/y and targeted to double in the next few months. It is poised to lead co-packaged optics with revenue in coming quarters and benefits from the 800G-to-1.6T shift.

The last company we will talk about today, my favorite stock, is a company called Coherent. I have previously spoken about the value chain of artificial intelligence. It includes everything from semiconductors to networks and physical infrastructure, all the way to cloud computing, big language models and software applications.

Therefore, you can find many companies within each of these individual categories. Coherent is located in that vital network connectivity layer.

Thus, Coherent is another one of those major companies that acts as a link, translating, you know, computer processing into ultrafast, low-latency optical signals. So, their business model again relies on controlling the entire physical stack, from growing raw composite semiconductor crystals in the lab to building the high-speed optical transceivers that power much of the modern infrastructure.

Therefore, Coherent has specialized factories that produce what are known as engineered substrates. This includes indium phosphide, silicon carbide, and gallium arsenide. What it does is essentially turn these raw chips into laser motors.

Therefore, it generates revenue through volume-based device sales. Their components must be specifically designed, adapted, and qualified within customer systems over months or years.

This creates highly predictable recurring revenue streams, as well as a recurring buying dynamic, you know.

Coherent, particularly over the past two years, has been aggressively shedding its non-core assets to redouble its focus on its data center and communications business. This is something we have seen widely within this field.

Kohernet was no exception to that. Therefore, its data center and communications sector represents approximately 75 to 80% of its total revenue. Yes, that's the bulk of the work at the moment.

The rest of its work serves industrial manufacturing lasers, such as precision cutting, electric vehicle batteries, and consumer technology. But most of it is concentrated in data center businesses.

Coherent has also shifted its strategy towards selling infrastructure for integrated optical platforms. For example, it has the "Photonlink" platform. It integrates lasers, optics, and fibers into a single, ready-to-use system for its customers.

Also of interest: as AI assemblies move beyond traditional copper cables, they are moving towards what are known as co-encapsulated optics and near-encapsulated optics, where these laser optical fibers are mounted directly onto the same silicon substrate as the computing converter.

And of course, you have the support of major companies like Nvidia and others, which are key elements in Coherent's growth story.

Now, management stated in recent earnings calls that the primary ceiling for their data center revenues, which now, as I noted, constitutes the bulk of their business, is not assembly or testing capacity, but rather internal raw laser production.

Therefore, Coherent is producing 80% more indium phosphide lasers than it did a year ago, and is currently on track to double its internal production in the next few months. And we continue to see that it plans to double that again to meet its ongoing super-growth cycle.

This is a company with a very diverse corporate footprint. They generate revenue through a global portfolio of industrial manufacturing lasers, advanced engineering, and materials.

Their revenue base is about $7 billion as of fiscal year 2026, so they have a good capital cushion there.

Coherent is also poised to be one of the first companies to move in the upcoming architectural transformation of co-encapsulated optics. Management said they plan to start generating tangible revenue from this business in the coming quarters.

This will generally put them at the forefront of the industry curve. It's a really interesting piece of work.

The other thing I would point out is that the AI industry is looking forward to an engineering transition from 800 gigabits optical networks to the next generation of 1.6 terabits transceivers.

At this network speed of 1.6 terabits, the power consumption of a standard data center unit threatens to cause clusters to overheat significantly unless operators use indium phosphide modifiers from "Coherent".

Therefore, we continue to see this growth from this business.

Revenue growth is significant. Their backlog of orders is large. I think they are generally protected from many of the wider credit fallout we have seen in this sector. And of course, they work with some of the world's richest companies as their clients.

Therefore, Coherent is another stock to consider within the AI infrastructure building sector, specifically when looking at the bottleneck of that infrastructure.