Shares of the artificial intelligence networking chip company Astera Labs Inc. were flying high in extended trading today, rising nearly 25% on the back of a solid earnings beat and strong guidance for the current quarter.
The chipmaker reported third quarter earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of 23 cents per share on sales of $113.1 million in the quarter. Revenue rose 206% from a year earlier to $113.1 million.
The numbers were solid, with Wall Street analysts calling for earnings of just 17 cents per share on sales of $97.5 million.
However, Astera didn’t quite make much impact on its bottom line. It reported a net loss of $7.59 million in the quarter, compared to a $7.54 million loss in the year-ago period.
AI is all the rage in the technology industry now, so it makes sense that Astera is reaping the rewards. The Santa Clara, California-based company manufactures and sells data center chips that are used by all three big cloud infrastructure providers – Amazon Web Services Inc., Google LLC and Microsoft Corp.
The chips are designed to extend the range of data center networking cables, which are used to link together clusters of AI servers, so they can be used to tackle higher-performance workloads. In addition, Astera Labs makes modules that enable processors to quickly transfer data to and from memory to boost their performance.
Astera’s chief executive officer Jitendra Mohan (pictured) said the company delivered a fifth consecutive quarter revenue record, with revenue up 47% on a sequential basis, compared to the prior quarter.
“Our business has now entered a new growth phase with multiple product families ramping across AI platforms based upon both third-party GPUs and internally developed AI accelerators,” he said. “We are cementing our position as a critical part of AI connectivity infrastructure, delivering increased value to our hyperscaler customers.”
Looking ahead, Astera had more good news for investors, saying that it’s anticipating fourth quarter earnings of between 25 cents and 26 cents per share, which is well ahead of the Street’s target of 18 cents per share.
In terms of revenue, Astera is shooting for sales of between $126 million and $130 million, versus the Street’s $107.9 million consensus estimate.
During the quarter, Astera strengthened its chip portfolio with the launch of its new Scorpio Smart Fabric Switches, the next generation of its silicon for linking AI infrastructure. In addition, the company became a member of the Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium, saying it intends to join the community effort to develop open-source UALink technology for high-speed AI accelerator connectivity.
