Astera Labs, Inc. Common Stock

Revenue in Q1 2026 was $308.4 million, up 14% sequentially and up 93% year over year. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.61, with a 11% non-GAAP tax rate and 181.2 million diluted shares. Non-GAAP gross margin was 76.4%, up 70 basis points sequentially; non-GAAP operating expenses were $123.9 million and operating margin was 36.2%. The company ended the quarter with $1.18 billion of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, flat versus Q4, after $74.6 million of cash from operations was offset by acquisition-related cash uses. For Q2, Astera expects revenue of $355 million to $365 million, up 15% to 18% sequentially; non-GAAP gross margin of about 73%, including an estimated 200 basis-point noncash impact from a warrant agreement; non-GAAP operating expenses of $128 million to $131 million; and non-GAAP EPS of $0.68 to $0.70.

Jitendra Mohan said AI infrastructure spending has clearly accelerated and remains early in its build-out, which he framed as a long-term tailwind. He emphasized broad-based Q1 growth, the expansion of Scorpio into both scale-up and scale-out use cases, and the company’s move into higher-value solutions such as optical interconnects, UALink, and custom AI designs. His tone was confident and strategic, with repeated focus on customer collaboration, software-defined differentiation through COSMOS, and expanding dollar content per accelerator.

Desmond Lynch highlighted the quarter’s financial strength: $308.4 million of revenue, 76.4% gross margin, 36.2% operating margin, and $0.61 of non-GAAP EPS. He said operating expenses were $123.9 million, including a full quarter of aiXscale and a partial quarter of the Israel Design Center, with R&D at $96.2 million, S&M at $12 million, and G&A at $15.7 million. He also noted $1.18 billion of cash and securities, $74.6 million of cash from operations, and Q2 guidance that implies continued top-line growth but a gross margin step-down to about 73% because of a 200 bps noncash warrant-related impact.

Analysts focused on whether AI inference, agentic workloads, and KV cache opportunities are expanding Astera’s market, and management said these trends are creating new opportunities across PCIe, CXL, and Scorpio. Questions also centered on Scorpio’s ramp, 320-lane milestones, optical timing, NVLink Fusion, UALink adoption, and the custom business model. Management said Scorpio X is already shipping in initial production volumes, with high-radix ramps in the second half of 2026 and meaningful revenue contributions from several newer opportunities expected in 2027.