MaxLinear (NASDAQ:MXL) opened fiscal 2026 with what management described as a strong start, citing accelerating demand in its optical data center business and sharply higher infrastructure revenue. On the company’s first quarter 2026 earnings call, CEO Kishore Seendripu said the quarter “marks the beginning of a multi-year growth phase,” led by optical interconnect products used in hyperscale AI-centric data centers.
Infrastructure becomes largest segment as optical ramps accelerate
Seendripu said infrastructure has become MaxLinear’s largest revenue category, growing 136% year-over-year in the first quarter, driven by “robust production ramps in optical data center-oriented platforms.” He pointed to rapid scaling of AI architectures by hyperscale customers and said visibility in bookings has improved.
During Q&A, Seendripu told Stifel’s Tore Svanberg that the upward shift reflects better visibility into lead times and the timing of ramps across both 400G and 800G solutions, as well as the company’s ability to scale supply to meet demand.
Keystone, Rushmore, and Annapurna highlighted across AI interconnect architectures
Seendripu said MaxLinear’s “Keystone PAM4 DSP optical transceiver platform” is now ramping at multiple major hyperscale customers in the U.S. and Asia, supporting 400G and 800G deployments for both scale-up and scale-out uses. He said the ramps validate MaxLinear’s differentiation in performance, power efficiency, and integration.
He also discussed newer products showcased at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC), including a 1.6 terabit platform built around:
- Rushmore, a 200 gigabit per lane PAM4 DSP
- Washington, a matching 200 gigabit per lane TIA
- Annapurna, a 1.6 terabit AEC and 3.2 terabit onboard electrical retimer platform for scale-up applications
Seendripu said Rushmore and Annapurna are foundational to emerging optical architectures such as LPO, LRO, AECs, XPO, and co-packaged optics. He added that customer engagement around Rushmore “has accelerated faster than expected,” with production ramps anticipated to begin in late 2026 and revenue growth continuing through 2027.
On additional questions about Annapurna, Seendripu said the current retimer offering is “Ethernet-based,” adding that the company is building a platform with “optionality” as standards evolve. He emphasized that the electrical retimer opportunity for AI scale-up “is humongous as the speeds increase.”
New hyperscale design wins extend beyond optical
Seendripu outlined expansion efforts beyond PAM4 optical and electrical interconnects, including the company’s “first XGS-PON design win at a U.S. hyperscale data center through a Tier 1 OEM partner,” aimed at dedicated PON-based control-plane architectures spanning multiple data centers. He also said MaxLinear has won USB bridge controller designs with two major hyperscalers to support rack-level AI system management.
In response to a question from Susquehanna’s Christopher Rolland about customer concentration, Seendripu said MaxLinear’s optical success remains broad-based across module vendors and end customers, though the company will concentrate on a subset during ramps. He described Keystone as an “affirmative statement” of MaxLinear’s ability to complete interoperability work and supply at scale, boosting credibility with hyperscalers and module partners.
Later, asked by Northland’s Tim Savageaux about the timing of the hyperscale PON win, Seendripu said the company “just secured the win” and expects ramp timing “sometime in 2027” after qualification. He described it as an early example of data centers deploying dedicated, reliable control links, and said MaxLinear expects the TAM to expand to “over $ hundreds of millions.”
Panther storage accelerators and wireless infrastructure cited as additional growth drivers
Seendripu said the company’s Panther hardware storage accelerator SoC family is seeing increasing design-win activity among Tier 1 network appliance and cloud service providers, driven by “persistent memory constraints.” He said Panther’s key advantages include hardware-accelerated compression, high throughput, and “ultra-low latency memory access,” and noted that MaxLinear is sampling next-generation Panther 5 with customers. Seendripu said the company expects storage accelerator revenue to “at least double in 2026 compared to 2025.”
On wireless infrastructure, Seendripu said momentum is improving as carriers increase investments in 5G RAN access and backhaul. He said MaxLinear’s Sierra single-chip radio SoCs are deployed with multiple North American operators. In Q&A, he added that while wireless infrastructure ramps are not expected to match data center growth rates, the company is seeing increasing interest in AI at the network edge and expects a tailwind in wireless transport and access deployments.
Financial results and Q2 outlook
CFO Steve Litchfield reported first quarter revenue of $137.2 million, up from $136.4 million in the prior quarter and up 43% from $95.5 million a year earlier. By segment, he reported approximately $63 million in infrastructure revenue, $44 million in broadband, $19 million in connectivity, and $12 million in industrial multi-market.
First quarter GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins were 57.5% and 59.5%, respectively. Litchfield said the difference was primarily driven by $2.6 million of acquisition-related intangible amortization. GAAP operating expenses were $96.1 million and non-GAAP operating expenses were $59.9 million, with the gap primarily attributed to stock-based compensation and performance-based equity accruals, plus acquisition-related and other costs.
MaxLinear posted a GAAP operating loss (13% of net revenue) and non-GAAP operating income (16% of net revenue). Net cash used in operating activities was about $8.9 million, and the company ended the quarter with approximately $89.9 million in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash. Litchfield said cash use was driven primarily by “substantial prepayment for wafers” to support increasing demand for low-geometry data center products, where the company has growing second-half backlog.
For the second quarter, Litchfield guided revenue to $160 million to $170 million, with growth expected across all four segments and “particular strength in infrastructure driven by data center optical interconnects.” He guided GAAP gross margin to 56% to 59% and non-GAAP gross margin to 58% to 61%, noting uncertainty around rising input costs such as wafers and packaging.
He also guided second-quarter GAAP operating expenses to $91 million to $97 million and non-GAAP operating expenses to $61 million to $66 million. GAAP and non-GAAP interest and other expense are each expected to be $1.8 million to $2.2 million, with foreign-exchange volatility identified as the primary risk. The company expects a $2 million GAAP tax benefit and a roughly $1 million non-GAAP tax provision, with diluted share count around 95 million on both bases.
About MaxLinear (NASDAQ:MXL)
MaxLinear, Inc is a provider of radio-frequency (RF), analog, and mixed-signal integrated circuits for broadband communications, data center connectivity, and video infrastructure applications. The company’s product portfolio includes high-performance RF front-end modules, broadband power amplifiers, optical and Ethernet transceivers, and network processors designed to support demanding signal processing requirements.
MaxLinear’s semiconductor solutions are used by cable and satellite television operators, fiber-to-the-home service providers, network equipment manufacturers, and data center operators.
