Aixtron lifts 2026 revenue outlook as optoelectronics demand surges

Aixtron lifted its 2026 revenue outlook after first-quarter orders surged and optoelectronics demand took a larger share of its business, sending the chip systems maker’s shares to an over-two-year high. The German company now expects annual revenue of about 560 million euros, plus or minus 30 million euros, up from a prior forecast of 520 million euros, and its stock rose about 13% in early trading after already climbing nearly 130% this year.

The stronger order book underscored a shift inside semiconductor capital spending that reaches beyond the usual AI-chip trade. Aixtron said preliminary first-quarter order intake rose about 30% from a year earlier to roughly 171 million euros, and more than 65% of equipment orders came from the optoelectronics segment. Chief executive Felix Grawert said the quarter brought significantly stronger-than-expected demand and that he expected the trend to continue.

That matters because Aixtron’s tools sit in a part of the supply chain tied to lasers, LEDs, displays and optical data transmission, areas that are increasingly linked to high-speed data links inside AI infrastructure. Grawert said the company’s G10-AsP system is the “tool of record” for next-generation photonic components used in chip-to-chip, rack-to-rack and datacenter-to-datacenter communications, a description that helps explain why the business is benefiting from both photonics and broader data-center investment.

The quarter was still uneven on the earnings line. Aixtron said preliminary revenue came in at about 59 million euros, down from 112.5 million euros a year earlier and below its guidance range of 65 million euros, plus or minus 10 million euros. Preliminary gross profit was about 11 million euros and EBIT was about minus 22 million euros, with the company citing low volume and a mid-single-digit-million-euro one-off personnel measure. Cash and cash equivalents plus other current financial assets rose to about 273 million euros from 224.6 million euros at the end of 2025.

Aixtron also sharpened its margin targets, raising its 2026 EBIT-margin guidance to 17% to 20% from 16% to 19% and its gross-margin outlook to about 42% from 41% to 42%, assuming an exchange rate of 1.20 dollars per euro. The update followed a difficult but improving 2025, when revenue fell to 556.6 million euros from 633.2 million euros in 2024 and order intake eased to 544.3 million euros from 596.4 million euros.

The broader backdrop reinforced the message. ASML, the largest supplier of chipmaking tools, also lifted its 2026 sales outlook on the same day, citing continued AI-related infrastructure demand. Together, the two updates pointed to a semiconductor equipment cycle that is being driven not just by advanced logic chips, but by the photonics and communications hardware needed to move data around them.