NEW YORK, March 10, 2026, 11:46 EDT
Shares of Coherent Corp climbed close to 6% Tuesday, after the company announced it’s set to join the S&P 500 on March 23. That move tacked on to a rally kicked off by Nvidia’s recent $2 billion stake. By late morning in New York, the stock was trading at $267.79, up after a 7.04% jump on Monday.
Timing is key here. With trillions of dollars benchmarked to the S&P 500 through index and exchange-traded funds, a reshuffle often triggers index-driven buying, expanding the pool of investors. Lumentum and Vertiv—two more AI infrastructure stocks joining the index this month—were up as well on Tuesday.
Coherent has surged on the back of photonics—the tech that moves data between chips and systems using light, not electricity. Nvidia announced a $2 billion investment in Coherent on March 2, securing both supply commitments and early access to next-generation laser and optical networking gear as Coherent increases U.S. production. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called the partnership a bid to deliver AI infrastructure at “unprecedented scale, speed and energy efficiency.” Marvell, for its part, is pushing further into photonics as well, through its Celestial AI tie-up. Reuters
Chief Executive Jim Anderson called the S&P 500 move “a testament to the strength of our team” on Monday. Coherent, which is headquartered in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, said its inclusion will become official before trading begins March 23. GlobeNewswire
On Monday, the company rolled out its latest 980-nanometer micro-pump lasers, designed for optical amplifiers that strengthen light signals traveling through networks. According to Madhu Krishnaswamy, senior vice president at Coherent, these new products enable customers to hit density and performance marks that were “previously unattainable” in such small form factors. Coherent Inc
The timing of that product push lines up with the upcoming OFC telecom conference in Los Angeles. Coherent plans a technology briefing at the event on March 17, with CEO Anderson, CTO Julie Eng, and several other top execs slated to appear.
The outlook’s brighter now. Back in February, Coherent posted fiscal Q2 revenue of $1.69 billion—a 17% jump over the prior year—and pointed to robust datacenter and communications demand fueling growth through the back half of fiscal 2026. For the third quarter, the company forecast revenue in the range of $1.70 billion to $1.84 billion.
Risks are still on the table. In a March 2 filing about the Nvidia agreement, Coherent cautioned that the deal’s underlying assumptions might not hold up, and any tweaks to the purchase agreement or related partnerships could impact results. The S&P inclusion doesn’t become official until March 23, so some of the recent buying may taper off after index-tracking funds finish their rebalancing.
