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Applied Optoelectronics Stock Is Surging: Meme Stock Or The Next Big AI Winner?

Applied Optoelectronics has become one of the market’s most closely watched AI infrastructure stocks after its shares jumped 8.4% to $134.59 following second-quarter results, accompanied by unusually heavy trading volume. The rally is increasingly being supported by operating numbers: Q2 revenue surged 86% year over year to a record $191.9 million, data-center revenue climbed 140%, and the company posted its first non-GAAP quarterly profit since 2023. Management says demand for advanced optical transceivers used inside AI data centers is now exceeding available production capacity, prompting a rapid manufacturing expansion across Texas and Asia. Yet the story remains complicated. Near-term earnings guidance missed Wall Street expectations, the company is still losing money on a GAAP basis, customer concentration remains unusually high, and hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to build capacity before the full revenue ramp arrives.