Lumentum $LITE ( ▲ 7.0% ) is lighting up after delivering a strong earnings beat and a bullish outlook. The optical and photonics supplier topped expectations on both revenue and profit, then guided well above Wall Street’s forecasts for the current quarter.
Investors are clearly betting the AI infrastructure boom is flowing straight through its order book.
Data Center Demand Is Doing the Heavy Lifting
For the December quarter, revenue jumped 65% year over year to a record $665.5 million, beating estimates. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.67, well ahead of the $1.42 analysts expected.
Lumentum makes optical components that power telecom networks and cloud data centers. Its customer list includes equipment makers and hyperscalers like Microsoft and Google, both of which are pouring money into AI-heavy data center builds.
The company also sells lasers used in consumer electronics manufacturing, including for Apple, but the real momentum right now is coming from AI-related infrastructure.
Guidance Signals Acceleration Ahead
Looking forward, Lumentum expects March-quarter revenue between $780 million and $830 million, far above the $745 million analysts had modeled. That suggests demand is not just strong, it is accelerating.
Management also highlighted a surge in orders for Optical Circuit Switches, a high-margin product used by hyperscalers to connect AI clusters efficiently. The backlog for those systems has climbed past $400 million, giving the company strong visibility into future growth.
As AI data centers scale up, the need for faster, more efficient optical networking gear grows too. Lumentum $LITE ( ▲ 7.0% ) is positioning itself right at the center of that buildout.