Optical Supply Chain: What would you buy?
Optical Supply Chain: What would you buy?  
Podcast: Semi Doped
Published On: Fri Feb 27 2026
Description: 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.Timestamps00:01 Intro06:59 AXT $AXTI13:38 Tower Semiconductor $TSEM23:58 GlobalFoundries $GFS32:43 Lumentum $LITE39:38 Coherent $COHR47:09 Fabrinet $FN54:07 Corning $GLWAustin's Substack: https://www.chipstrat.com/Vik's Substack: https://www.viksnewsletter.com/