MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. announced a 3.2-terabit optical chipset on September 17, featuring eight 448-Gbps PAM-4 channels designed for next-generation data-center applications. The announcement came as the stock had more than doubled over the preceding year.
Following the chipset reveal, BMO Capital upgraded MACOM shares to Outperform with a price target of $335. The analyst noted that a 36% decline from the May peak had compressed the company’s forward valuation to approximately 29 times earnings, while underlying data-center fundamentals remained supported. The new platform integrates drivers, photodiodes, and transimpedance amplifiers for optical modules, with components already available for customer deployment rather than existing solely as research concepts.
MAC’s positioning puts it in direct competition with Coherent Corp., which also supplies optical connectivity infrastructure for AI clusters. Both companies benefit from demand for higher-speed optical modules as data links advance toward 3.2-terabit speeds. A single supplier capable of providing both transmit and receive components can reduce customer qualification requirements, creating potential operational advantages.
Coherent maintains greater scale in data-center optics and has become more widely recognized as an AI networking beneficiary. This scale positions the company to capture volume across 800G, 1.6T, and faster link generations, though it also increases exposure to potential headwinds from hyperscaler deployment changes or optical pricing pressures.
Hedge fund ownership of MACOM increased to 59 funds in Q2 from 45 in Q1, according to available data. Approximately 2.96 million MACOM shares were sold short at the August 31 settlement date, representing roughly 3.9% of float. The optical components market can support multiple winners given the substantial bandwidth requirements of AI infrastructure deployments.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI